Competition and human nature...

Anthropologists have recently begun to question the notion that competitiveness is inherent in human nature. The tribes that did best were those that were able to better cooperate with each other. And neuro-scientists have discovered recently that we are actually "hard-wired" (I know, I don't like that phrase either!) to get greater jolts of pleasure chemicals (dopamine, I think) in our brain when we cooperate. That would strongly suggest that the response developed in early hominids as an evolutionary advantage.

On social change and re-defining our words...

Educating the public, raising people's consciousness and changing laws. All staples of the work for social/political change. I propose another aspect to the good fight. Changing the defnitions of political and economic life. For example, Webster's New World Dictionary defines "politics" as (among other connotations), "the conducting of or participation in political affairs, often as a profession" and "political methods, tactics, etc.; sometimes, specifically, crafty or unprincipled methods." In the near term, I propose a new definition: the active pursuit of the redistribution of wealth and power among all people in a society towards the principle of equality." And perhaps, in the future, very simply: "compassion in action."

Competition vs. Cooperation (irony ahead): cooperation wins every time!

A few thoughts...

If it's true that plants have an understanding to share resources (a rather cooperative endeavor), how can the human experience truly benefit from what is not inherently the way our planet works? I believe we're all here to learn different things and very few things are (for all people under all circumstances) "good" or "bad." Likewise, I don't believe competition is "bad," just fundamentally not helpful to nourish our souls. It does serve well as an alternative to nothing at all (think sports programs for inner city youth), but how much more valuable would it be to have programs to cooperatively develop and grow gardens in those same inner cities? That experience has been transformative of entire communities. Basketball produces very (very) few rich stars and peddles the cruel illusion of fame and fortune that keeps most of us fighting each other for scraps of a life lived alone and scared.

plants and cooperation...

Doing some yard work this past weekend...down on my hands and knees, up-close with the grass and tangle of weeds, I realized something...just popped in my head. These plants have (closest thing I can think of) an "agreement" with each other to share access to what they need: soil, sun, water. My intuition was pretty strong: they are not so much competing. Confirmations on that?

Greatness everywhere! In praise of divine love...

There is greatness in every human being. At their core, the essence of us. And when we have the courage to love, that is when who we are in the flesh comes close to the greatness in our core. They may be said to meet at times. That is when our bodies glimpse the infinite as if through a thin, deliciously tempting veil.