No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.
John Donne
How can working alongside others be a bad thing?
I am a big fan of the What I Believe podcast, sponsored by Humanists UK. Each week, the host, Andrew Copson, expertly interviews prominent British humanists, who stun with their intellect and wisdom. Among others, the podcast introduced me to the work of John Amaechi, whom I consider a singular voice of profound insight and a brilliant philosopher of leadership.
This past September (09-22-2022), Copson interviewed psychologist Nichola Raihani in an episode well worth listening to (as they all are). Raihani spoke of her book, The Social Instinct, and on values and culture. I have not read her book yet, but it is on my list.
What We Believe
Have you ever noticed how you go through life believing some things as near absolutes without much thought? Maybe such beliefs reflect your personal values or are based on some cultural assumptions that you rarely consider let alone question. We all do it. Nonetheless, perhaps something about one belief bothers you a bit, like there may be a dark side to it. Raihani helped me identify one such problematic belief I had long taken for granted.
One of my strongest and most persistent beliefs is in the positive power of cooperation. I have long valued the spirit of cooperation in the workplace and elsewhere. I see myself as collaborative by nature and conspicuously fostered the same in my people when I was a manager. Cooperation, I have been convinced, is how we have survived and thrive as a species. As you can see in any human organization, we get more done with less effort when we cooperate. Although it has become cliche, John Donne was surely correct when he wrote, “No man is an island.”
Furthermore, by cooperating, we build community. Humans are social beings and need to belong. If you have ever known anyone who lives in isolation, they are generally pretty miserable. In fact, they can get into a cycle where the misery of their isolation makes them unpleasant to be around, which in turn makes them more isolated. Insidious.
I saw this with my grandmother. For years after my grandfather died, she lived alone, and she was no treat to be around. My brother and I specifically avoided her at holidays. Before a visit, we would remind each other, “don’t ask Grandmom how she’s doing.” Failing to heed this advice would initiate a litany of ailments, many of which were not fit for the ears of young grandsons.
Eventually, though, she needed more care and went into a nursing home right there in her West Philadelphia neighborhood. Her transformation was nearly instantaneous and utterly astonishing. Visiting her was almost a pleasure although it was still wise to not query about her health.
What made the difference? She was now among people just like her, people she knew from the area, a pleasant and vibrant community of like-minded individuals. In no time she was elected vice president of the nursing home council. When I heard that, I had to ask my father to repeat it. I thought I had misheard.
Cooperation is, indeed, a necessary and positive driver of human development.
You know where I am going with this, right?
But…
Raihani in her interview points out that while cooperation is pervasive throughout human society and the natural world alike, “cooperation has become synonymous with this idea of teamwork and cheerfulness and lots of other bland corporate metaphors.”
Ouch! That gibes with my primary notion of cooperation. It sucks to hear it put that way, but Raihani is right, oh-so right. Cooperation, like so many complex ideas, has slipped into the near-meaningless linguistic void of business-speak.
In the interview, she goes on to explore the deeper meaning of cooperation. Yes, she notes that cooperation from an evolutionary standpoint is just “interactions where individuals work together,” but she adds that often one or more or all of these individuals pay a price for their cooperation. In other words, those who cooperate with others often invest something of themselves to achieve a common good.
By way of example, Raihani describes the sacrifice that individuals of a particular species of Brazilian ant make to protect their colonies. These ants search for food by day, and then return to their underground nest by night, I assume to feast and enjoy the ant version of Netflix. Some of them stay behind though to seal and conceal the entrance of the nest from predators. Theirs is a suicide mission because the ants cannot survive outside overnight. While it may already sound like the plot to a mawkish war film, the left-behind ants’ sacrifice is made more acute by the fact that they then go off to die elsewhere so that their corpses will not attract predators to the nest. This is extreme cooperation in action.
But it gets worse.
The Downside of Working Together
Raihani goes on to note that humans too are “inordinately cooperative,” in that we not only sacrifice something of ourselves to the collective but often cooperate in the service of harm. She gives the obvious example of war, which requires massive cooperation and coordination in the glorious pursuit of inflicting suffering and death on others. She also adds less consequential examples of harmful cooperation such as “nepotism, corruption, and bribery.” I cannot successfully bribe you unless you accept the bribe and cooperate with my wishes.
Think of a group of schoolyard bullies ganging up their nerdy classmate. (If you are like me, you can just pick at the scabs of your memory rather than straining your imagination here.) These bullies, who by definition are self-interestedly driven by a zero-sum view of the world, somehow wondrously put all that aside to come together in the common cause of pounding the snot out of some poor kid. Simply put, sometimes cooperation is largely or even wholly negative and is organized merely to victimize those outside the collective.
Much of the rest of Raihani’s interview discusses the influence of circumstance and culture on collective morality, and I recommend it highly.
As for cooperation, although I have long touted it as a moral good, it is, in itself, morally neutral. Morality only comes into play via our choices. Even in the working world, cooperation can advantage an organization — such as workers collaborating on a beneficial project — or damage an organization — such as top executives helping each other manipulate company stocks or coercing employees into participating in corrupt practices.
What irks me is that while I did and still believe in the positive power of cooperation, I also always intuitively knew of and willfully ignored the dark side. Why? What other values do I hold dear that have an unacknowledged dark side? How can I get at their truth?
I won’t give up my enthusiasm for cooperation entirely, but I will temper it a bit. Cooperation can be a virtue, yes, but only when, like leadership, we clearly use it as a force for good.
What unquestioned beliefs do you hold dear? How can you challenge those beliefs to get at their truth?
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The Dark Side of Cooperation