If you search the World Wide Web for the basic human needs, a concept of some renown, you will quickly discover Abraham Maslow’s old story: air, water, food, clothing, shelter… Good stuff. But Maslow does not offer much of interest on one of the basic human needs that I discovered soon upon arrival in Motovun: the need for community. Or neighborhood in the urban parlance. How else explain my love of this wretched hilltown in the middle of nowhere?! But this is not the thrust of this piece. All I am interested in at the moment is the fact that the human species has known communities of a few hundred people for many tens of thousands of years. Well, communities of a few hundred people prevailed for at least a hundred-thousand years, all the way to the onset of the agricultural revolution some ten-thousand years ago. Could this be the root of communism? Could communism be about our very guts—our genetic endowment?

Addendum I (February 9, 2015)

As I read this fabulous piece so many years hence, I find myself nodding affirmatively to the fervent questions gracing its end. They have turned into fervent answers in the meanwhile, at least in my own mind. Indeed, the need for community is the most basic among human needs. Humans are pack animals, after all. Whence the passion with which the idea of communism was taken up a bit more than a century ago. For better or worse, passion is a thing of the past, for the need for community will be satisfied come what may. And in not so distant future. Once climate change picks this civilization apart, which will take but a few centuries, our genetic endowment will play its part unattended. Pace Maslow, but your ruminations about human needs will become rather superfluous, too.

Addendum II (April 14, 2021)

Craving for community is part and parcel of civilization for thousands upon thousands of years. Humans are doing everything in their power to recreate the community from which they originate. All sorts of religions are a good example. Temples, synagogues, churches, and mosques are everywhere around the globe. The same holds for parties, associations, and clubs of all descriptions. In the age of the World Wide Web, there are many social networks on offer, as well. And yet, all of them miss something essential to a community worthy of that name, or a real community. The glue that holds such a community is biological in nature. It is natural, so to speak. Brothers, cousins, aunts, grandchildren, sisters, uncles, grandparents… Most important, it cannot be created at will. Which is why the craving for a genuine community is bound to remain unfulfilled until the return of tribal life following the collapse of civilization. Then and only then will it be fulfilled at long last. Alleluia!