Insight #201
Once again, I am amazed at how well people can work together to achieve a common goal, whether it is to protect the planet, defend democracy or promote public health.
Well, maybe half the people work well together. But which half?
If only we could figure out which half wasn’t playing nice, we could do something about it and them. The problem is that there are so many permutations of what makes up which half. Even worse, people keep changing their minds, their behavior, and the half we thought they were in. (How inconsiderate.)
And yet, here we humans are, still surviving and thriving. Astounding. But somehow puzzling.
Well, not really, if you consider how strange humans are. We dominate this planet mainly because of our ability to work together. Yet we compete like crazy. Go figure.
Our ability for premeditated teamwork has enabled us to expand our horizons beyond our wildest dreams. And as our reality has expanded to match our dreams, we have increased our need to know where we fit in the scheme of things.
Here’s the really strange bit. Our sense of self-worth is based mainly on comparisons with others. I measure myself against you. Sadly, what this often comes down to is that my success depends on your un-success.
Which creates a diabolical paradox: I win if you lose. But we survive if we work together.
To date, we have survived and developed because we resolve this paradox by finding mutual meaning beyond the cost of our differences. But today? We seem to find meaning only in our differences. No wonder every win now puts our mutual survival at risk.
It seems we are not so smart, after all.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“Every winner needs a loser. As long as it’s not me.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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