Contrary to libertarian and Tea Party rhetoric, evolution has made us a powerfully social species, so much so that the essential precondition of human survival is and always has been the individual plus his or her relationships with others.

This is from John Edward Terrell, “Evolution and the American Myth of the Individual,” New York Times, The Opinionator, November 30, 2014.

Seriously? I know some libertarians who are anti-social and many libertarians who lack basic social graces, but I don’t think I know any (and I’ve been in this game for almost 5 decades) who deny that our survival depends in thousands of ways on our relationships with others.

I bet that if Terrell heard the title “I, Pencil” and also heard that most libertarians love that article, he would assume, without reading, that the pencil is celebrating its independence of others.

OMG. I just now looked at the author’s bio. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but it wasn’t this:

John Terrell is the Regenstein Curator of Pacific Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History and professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

HT2 Steve Horwitz.