The air you breathe.

Violence. 


Our history is choked with horrific examples. Vile, soul-blanching acts of the most depraved kind.  A seemingly unending stream of ways for people to hurt each other. From global conflict to backyard rivalries, as a species we really know how to lay the smack down. The way the theory goes is that life is nasty, short and ruled by brutes.  At the root, people are selfish, uncaring and violent. The only person you can count on is yourself.  Frankly, I don't buy it. 


When you examine our penchant for violence, the picture looks pretty bleak. The further you look into the kinds of atrocities that people are willing to inflict on others, the more you have to question the notion that you can become desensitized to violence. If it was always the same level of violence, maybe you could become used to it.  But we don't live in a world that has an upper threshold for violence.  Every time you think you've heard or seen the worst, another nightmare bludgeons it's way into the light. But as I say, I don't buy into this picture of humanity.

There is something that is overlooked, or at least trivialized to the point of being easily ignored.  It is a most vital fact. That, at heart, we are cooperative, social pacifists.  To me, this is critical. It's kind of like art. How would we see the painting without the canvas?  We live in a cooperative, mutually dependant world; like fish in the sea. A vast, unglamorous life of cooperation surrounds us; almost everywhere, everyday of our lives. It is the reason why acts of war and violence stand out so obviously and noticeably. And very unlike violence, tolerance and cooperation is being delivered at a nearly constant level and so fades into the background.

If you think about it for even a moment it becomes obvious that a vast amount of your day to day life is dependant, is only possible, with the cooperation of other people.

The notion that the physically strongest rule through threat of violence simply doesn't hold water. If the basic premise is that if I have the means to kill (or seriously hurt) you, I will then threaten to take said action and so, force you to conform to my will. This is all well and good. But at best it is a short term strategy to success. How far can intimidation get me? Can I rule you everyday of my life with the threat of doing you harm? Suppose I were to try, what would happen?


There is an old adage about Hawks and Doves.  In a world populated by Hawks, who are agressive, and Doves, who are pacific, if a Hawk meets a Dove, the Dove loses. If two Doves meet, everything stays the same. If two Hawks meet, they fight until one wins. This process continues until there is only one Hawk ruling over the Doves. A good enough metaphor, but hardly complete when looking at complex human motivations. Nonetheless, lets continue to use the analogy just a bit longer.  Perhaps we can say more realistically that people are likely to be part Hawk and part Dove, depending on the situation. Which means that at any point a Dove might turn into a Hawk. If that's true, then where does it leave ruling by force?

Well, if I am violent by nature and I assume that there are others like me, I would have to find these threats and eliminate them. But can I do it fast enough? Not by myself. I simply can't act alone. I need people to help me. I need people that I trust implicitly to surround me at all times and protect me since anyone can turn into a threat at anytime. Again, how long do I have before I start to worry about things like falling asleep or turning my back on the wrong person? Eating poisoned food? Because I have to eat and I have to sleep and if I'm not protected, no matter how strong and brutal I am, eventually I will be killed.


So to be able to succeed in my endeavour to rule through violence I have to find other people that will also benefit from using violence and are willing to help me. Do you see it now? I have to cooperate in order to live. Cooperation is as important to my survival as the air I breathe. Even for a Hawk.