I imagine myself as mostly cooperative, yet i fear my mulish independence and three ex-wives would strenuously object to that not quite innocent assertion. If i was so all fired cooperative, this essay would not agitate my soul as it has, but rather pour itself from my heart into yours like chocolate pudding into a cup. I know this much, were i to resist the impulse to explore this topic, it would describe a serious lack of cooperation within my own being - just like peace cannot be found, until it is felt within. Nor can i claim freedom from cooperation’s nemesis - competition, otherwise how could i sustain an effort, however quixotic, of encouraging anyone about cooperation’s superior utility to humanity. It may be i am too old school, and ought to give ground by using one of the “popularity” apps push technology has so kindly provided our species. I could easily sample the heart of the internet, learning all there is to know about how you all feel about cooperation; then simply present the results - this essay might just write itself. Sadly the half-truths of that fantasy may sustain some lone developer despairing at his/her slog up the corporate ladder toward some corner office and that six figure income promised when s/he hocked a major percentage of her/his future earnings with which to purchase a degree in computer science and all the prestige such an education might provide. ironically, when i transferred to my final college in 1991, the only department allowing for transfers was Computer Science. Could it be i was not cooperating with the universe, when only to gain a toe hold at the college of my choice, i took advantage of that loophole, transferring then to the vastly more practical English major once in? What would my life look like had i simply gone the flow of the universe and remained in the computer science department? Is that even the nature of cooperation - to abandon one’s preferences in favor of a more convenient option¿ Could it be that the essence of a cooperative model for social adaptation is just a more vigorous version of competition - that the cooperative model was abandoned as a means of winnowing the best from the better, not because it was more namby-pamby, touchy-feely and liberal, but because competition was more expeditious, economical and easily managed by the shot callers; perhaps the process of cooperative selection might have winnowed those same shot callers driven by narrow self serving ambitions from leadership positions?
Exploitation is not nature’s way, even Darwin who is often touted as justification for the conservative war chant, “might makes right” declared that adaptability is a more powerful indicator of a species’ success than strength or intelligence. A good question might be: between the ruling class and the proletariate today, which is demonstrating greater adaptability¿ Certainly that mook surveilling your emails without a warrent, or schlep cozying up to Bezo’s administrative assistant in hopes of ___________ fill in the blank or even those sellout hackers selling their botskills to the Ruskies for gobs of _________ fill in the blank, might feel themselves at the pinnacle of some kind of mountain; it would be a push whether i’d call any one of those advantageous positions a corner office, pinnacle or precipice. Helping the man sweeping the street do his job more easily has more practical applications for the betterment of a larger percentage of humanity than aping for the puppets of power put in place by cowards lacking gumption enough to explain to the world why they believe they are worth so much. What would our world look like now if we, as a species, had opted for the cooperative model and vetted the leaders of today’s world based on their effectiveness, rather their happenstance of birth or luck or any variation therefrom you might conceive. Of my many difficulties, and one for which i’d like to find a better resolution in this essay, is the distinction between cooperation and accommodation. It may be that rather than being mostly cooperative as i have declared elsewhere, i am mostly accommodating. Cooperation and accommodation are not by definition mutually exclusive, however accommodation lacks the common purpose that is defined by cooperation. My personal experience would bear that out; every time i have abandoned an objective i knew to be correct in my heart in favor or deference to another, i have regretted it. This is not to say my objectives have always been pristine or even wise, only that as an organism when i have not stayed true to my interior, that decision has invariably bitten me in the ass. However, as the vixen on fb has pointed out, that is a misfortune that can, at times, be its own reward.
Sexually, accommodation pales in comparison to the power of cooperation. A truth i believe in my heart to be entirely reciprocal, for just as procured sex can never provide either party the rich personal fulfillment of a loving fuck with total abandon, neither will the cowardice of rape confer masculinity, or the parceling of sexual favors beautify a woman. Men today clearly feel resentment for their lot in the sexual playgrounds of today, yet women have gained nothing by the cerebral text of feminism with its rigid definitions of something they can never know - what a man feels, except that which a man openly shares about himself as a result of a lovingly nurtured self examination; good luck finding that beast. We, all of us, have become little more than social network publications of our Madison Ave inspired avatars - our own personal advertisements. Sadly not so much different than that Computer Science graduate, Phd Candidate, or Masters in Business Administration new hire peering out over his/her escrowed cubicle at the window offices and their door locks wondering how much sooner s/he might pay off her/his educational debt once s/he claws her/his way passed that locking door. These are not very wholesome ambitions to my thinking, but that is only a personal opinion after 40 years in the labor market. Would i do it again¿ I would not, knowing what i know now; what would i change? I would take greater pains to understand the “common cause” distinction between accommodation and cooperation. Too often i have succumbed to the fiction which now has its own name - “careerism” - that idea that one’s contentment and personal fulfillment is defined by prestige of the perfect position. Some of the strategies which one contorts one’s self to achieve such nebulous lifelong pursuits might include: you love working on cars, so you become an automotive technician; you like sports, so you become a physical education teacher; you like working with numbers, so you become a bean counter, etc. On the face of it, perfectly practical recommendations until one begins to consider the vast spectrum of human capacity and achievement in terms of a career search that allows for “explorer,” “sailor,” “warrior,” “rock star,” “professional athlete”, “thug,” “President of the United States of America” etc., etc., etc.
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) coupled the push technology from our precious Wunderkids of Silicone Valley, things are not looking good for the rugged individualist of ancient and modern lore. If anything we are simply accommodating the mutation of the Roman Coliseum into what is now euphemistically described as “The Economy.” Here our dreams and hopes are deconstructed and plastered on viral screens asserting that just because we have been elected to the presidency we are now leaders. The problem is that we are still slaughtering ourselves for our better’s entertainment, nor have we grown much closer to answering that elusive question of what was on Mozart’s mind? Rather we have been forced to accept our most mediocre of efforts as fine art, possibly because some frustrated younger artist, rather than pay obeisance to beauty, elected to pay for a Phd in Fine Arts with which to became a vaunted art critic whose portfolio is now full with constantly upward-assessed estimations of contemporary artwork. Art value once depended on a solid provenance, now aesthetics are merely trails of providence. We do not seem to be captains of our mother earth ship any longer - a promise held up to humans over history under the periodic excellence manifested in “The Renaissance” “Machu Pichu,” “The Ming Dynasty.” etc. I am not proposing that the remarkable achievements of any period of human history were accomplished without some form of brutal inequality; consider the some 300 Zapotec nobles and priests who commanded a population of 30,000 (.01%) at the height of power for the Zapotec culture inhabiting Danibaan prior to 800 AD. While in today’s fake world economy, .01% is still a population figure bandied about as legitimate High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) contributing some manner of value or _________ fill in the blank, but the population numbers describing our plight today are a little more grave. Oxfam states that 6 individuals now possess greater wealth than the bottom half of the world’s population of some 7 billion humans or a percentage of (0.0000000017142857%) of the world’s population - a percentage which also seems to represent the level of responsibility which the very wealthiest on our planet feel toward toward the rest of humanity. A better explanation for that number might be if you imagined yourself and another sharing a dollar between you - the other feels you are worthy of 0.0000000017142857 of that dollar - you do the math. For my money, one of those two people is either not too very cooperative, or the either is way too fucking accommodating.
I benefited greatly from my personal upbringing which dictated that you pay as you go and be responsible for your own debt. To that end i am somewhat in the black at 63 years of age with 13 stone carvings for sale and sundry artworks that were never slapped together in the industrial art paradigm of sucking up to market forces. It is a paradox to me that in some parts of my life i consider myself too accommodating for my own good, while in other aspects i have impoverished myself by not being cooperative enough. Nor would i imagine my plight that much different than any other human who has taken more than a passing stab at what it means to live with purpose. I believe that a rising tide can better the lives of all, so i am willing to throw my lot in with any creative person or persons searching for a fair livelihood within the labyrinth of creative independence. Searching for a model/companion/business partner has proven a fruitless search for reasons i am at a loss to explain. My sense is the vocabulary of modern feminism does not account for a cooperative life such as i have proposed - that or i am a man out of time, ahead or behind is anybody’s guess. But as a species i can say for fact we have been far too accommodating to those alleged leaders who remain sold to the highest bidders, and altogether off-the-scale accommodating to those bidders with money enough to call the shots. Our only common cause as a species at this time is to preserve the bubble atmosphere within which we live and die. This bubble of air, by the way, is spinning on its axis at about 1,000 miles an hour, while orbiting our sun at a rate of 67,000 miles per hour - a sun which is itself moving in a spiral trajectory in the direction of Vega at about 43,000 miles an hour. This is a lot to ask of a bubble of air which owes its existence to a quixotic blend of sunlight, water, and plant life to support all of its inhabitants, which we as the dominant species are killing off - plant, insect, bird and mammal at a rate of 150-200 species every 24 hours; for the nay-sayers on the fossil fuel payroll, that number of extinctions is over 1,000 times greater than any figure prior to the industrial revolution. As an acolyte of Mr. Natural, my sense is that mother nature has been very accommodating, and just like myself being uncooperative about some aspects of my existence - she too will prove herself to be more cooperative than accommodating and will too soon simply throw her weight behind any phenomenon that proves it can share common cause with her wellbeing; i think it would behove us to find what mother earth needs, and help her to help us.
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competition - a sonnet
competition is mostly ignorant
especially those contests of others
often based on plans from a sycophant
sucking up to ghosts of other’s mothers.
it has been eons since we had to club
our path to her heart, and still here we sit
one foot - a future in love, one a stub
left raw by fighting from some other’s snit
who would i compete with - for why - for what?
why fight to live in a world full of food
robbed from honest labor by a fake king tut
whose pyramid ain’t real and manners rude?
i will compete for any chance to live
with babies born to parents taught to give
jts 02/12/2018
http://stoneartist.com
reprinted with permission - all rights reserved
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