Imagine a wedding reception. Everyone looks their best. Chatter and music fill the air. It’s time to cut the cake. The groom bends down and pulls the cord. A burble, then the chainsaw roars to life.
Is anything wrong with this picture?
TRUST BUT VERIFY
Dr. Matthew D. Lieberman is a neuroscientist who wrote a book called “Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Connect”. In it, he lays out the experimental evidence for his thesis that the most important thing that we use our brains for is forming and understanding our relationships with one another. We can learn math and science, music and language, history and economics, but what the brain specializes in, what it does in the background when we’re not focused on another topic, is understanding relationships.
Humans are a social species, as I’ve argued many times. But what Lieberman actually provides rigorous scientific evidence for is the fact that humans as a whole naturally err on the side of working well together, trusting one another, and sharing with one another. Believe it or not.
There are some caveats. First, these tendencies rely on people feeling safe and comfortable. If you take away a person’s security, they become much more selfish and short-sighted.
And, of course, some people will always choose to lie, cheat, and steal.
In “The Selfish Gene,” Richard Dawkins dedicates a chapter to the idea of ESS, an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy.
In the Prisoner’s Dilemma, two players must decide independently whether to try to cooperate with the other player or defect and attack the other player. The biggest payout goes to a defector if the other player cooperates. The biggest loss comes from the cooperator if the other player defects. So, logic dictates that the best move is to defect.
But what about an iterated game? If the same players play together repeatedly over time, the opportunity to always defect against a player who always cooperates is unlikely. If both players always cooperate, both benefit. But all it takes is one defector in a community of cooperators to take everything.
A scientist named Robert Axelrod ran a study using a computer program to determine the best strategies for iterated prisoner’s dilemma and determined that the strategy that won the most against nearly every other strategy was “tit for tat,” to cooperate on the first round, then do whatever the other player did in the previous round from then on. If the other player always cooperates, “tit for tat” always cooperates. If the other player always defects, “tit for tat” defects every subsequent round. If the other player usually cooperates but defects on occasion, “tit for tat” punishes each defection, but otherwise cooperates.
In other words, a very simple rule of thumb for the best way to deal with people is to give them the benefit of the doubt, then trust them exactly as much as they prove themselves trustworthy.
Mutual cooperation is the best long term strategy, but some people will always choose to lie, cheat, and steal. So punish the liars, cheaters, and thieves proportional to their crimes, then give them the chance to repent.
THERE’S NO “I” IN “TEAM”
But, as Michael Jordan said, there is an “i” in “win.”
Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time. I know that in spite of the fact that I have neither watched nor played a game of basketball in my life.
Team sports have been played by humans for thousands of years. Like all forms of “play,” they speak to us because they teach us universal lessons about living life.
“I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
“Talent wins games. Teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
“When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.”
“I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else’s talent.”
Michael Jordan was born with an above average natural ability to play basketball. But what made him the GOAT is his ability to learn those critical life lessons, to understand the value of failure, cooperation, focus, and humility, and to make the sacrifices necessary to embody them fully.
When I was young, I played the game known everywhere on Earth as football, but in America as soccer.
I was never particularly competitive. But I had a few teammates who were.
Competitiveness is a drive that is far deeper than mere human nature, it is part of what it means to be alive. Those who outdo their neighbors are in the best position to survive anything that nature can dish out.
Lobsters that have the best holes avoid predators. Birds that get the best nesting areas survive a bird flu. “When the aristocracy catches a cold, the working class dies of pneumonia.”
Even as absolute wealth continues to rise, the reality of inequality will never go away, and competitiveness cannot be taught away as if we are born blank slates. Success always has advantages and there will always be people who pursue those advantages.
That is why my teammates worked hard to drag our whole team to victory, even though, at the end of the season, we all got the same trophy. And that is why we all laugh at the people who decided we should all get the same trophy.
I can only speak for myself, of course, but I started working much harder when they stopped giving trophies to losers. And I viscerally enjoy the game more the better I do.
OUR NIFTY LITTLE MORMON TRICK
I’ve always hated yard work. I don’t particularly know why, but it always seemed so pointless. Weeds always come back, the grass always has brown patches, the flowers are never as pretty as the ones in the store.
For a short period in my life, I spent a lot of time with my local Mormons. What an incredible community! I was always getting invited over to big, beautiful houses for celebrations or bible study, always getting job opportunities and career inspiration, always getting help with any yard work that I needed to do, and always getting the opportunity to help others with their yard work.
Strangely enough, I probably did more yard work with them than I ever did alone, and yet the burden was so much lighter and the work so much more fulfilling!
It’s easy to make fun of the Mormons. Their beliefs do not bear much resemblance to the average Christian, much less to the average agnostic or atheist. But, whether the religion is true or not, the Mormons are doing something right.
They each do what they can, working together for the benefit of each individual member. And they each tithe 10% of everything they ever earn to the community, while they each get to keep 90% to do with as they wish. And plenty of that 90% still goes back to the community in the form of personal charity and generosity. It is the purest form I’ve ever seen of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
The richest Mormons are the most generous, and the most generous have the highest prestige. The poorest Mormons still work hard and have the respect and love of every member of the community. When anyone loses a job, they have offers for work within a day. When anyone gets an unexpected medical bill, the community comes together and gets it paid in full with no expectation of repayment.
These benefits do not accrue to those who do not attend Church on Sunday, nor to those who refuse every call to help with the neighbor’s yard work. Community takes care of those who take care of community.
THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE RIGHT JOB
A chainsaw is a brilliant, powerful cutting tool. But that doesn’t make it the best tool for cutting a wedding cake. Some tasks require less power, less complexity, and more patience and precision.
Some tasks are best accomplished without the use of the government.
In the previous essay, I said that economics is only one of the four pillars of thriving. The role of the Socialist is to bring focus back to the other three. Don’t destroy Capitalism, but do put it back in its place.
Capitalism relentlessly drives down costs. The Socialist recognizes when extra cost is worth paying. Capitalism gives us cheap meat, but it is worth paying more for meat from well-treated animals. Capitalism gives us cheap shoes, but it is worth paying more for shoes made by well-paid laborers.
Capitalism relentlessly commodifies every desire a person can have. The Socialist recognizes what must not be commodified. Capitalism makes it easy to buy and sell “love” and “companionship.” But real love and companionship cannot be bought, and when we put a bandaid on a deep wound, we believe that we have addressed the problem when we have not.
Capitalism makes it easy to insulate ourselves, to live in our basements and order everything we want or need delivered to our door. The Socialist recognizes that we need to be a part of society, that we need to know our neighbors’ names, that we owe them a cup of sugar when they knock on our door.
How do we make Socialism actually work? By moving past the myopic focus on economic systems, by accepting the fact that socialist ideals cannot be made manifest by government policy, by building a stronger social system from the bottom up, individual by individual, community by community.
