Lasch, p. 143: “The prevalent mode of social interaction today is antagonistic cooperation (as David Riesman called it in the lonely Crowd), in which a cult of teamwork conceals the struggle for survival within bureaucratic organizations.”
Lasch, p.274: “Our society is narcissistic, then, in a double sense. People with narcissistic personalities… play a conspicuous part in contemporary life… …Modern capitalist society not only elevates narcissists… it reinforces narcissistic traits in everyone… by undermining parental authority… by creating so many varieties of bureaucratic dependence. … makes it increasingly difficult for people to lay to rest the terrors of infancy or to enjoy the consolations of adulthood.”
Lasch, p.278: “In a dying culture, narcissism appears to embody — in the guise of personal “growth” and “awareness” — the highest attainment of spiritual enlightenment. … The will to build a better society… survives, along with traditions of localism, self-help, and community action that only need the vision of a new society, a decent society , to give them new vigor.”
Rising education levels, lowered fertility rates, longer life expectancy, all lead to increased cooperative behaviors, reduced violence.
We’ll develop emotionally and psychologically to where we can connect with less friction as economic, social and political beings across divides of gender, religion, ethnicity, and moral values. An understanding of social skills such as tolerance and ego and anger management will become the widespread norm. Psychologically and emotionally we’ll come to understand ourselves better as individuals so as to facilitate individual relationships, and organizations and institutions will adopt structures that incorporate these skills.
Building Trust: Economist, 11/1/25 – “The end of the rip-off economy”. AI has leveled the information disparity between buyers and sellers, e.g. for cars. This builds trust and trust builds cooperation.
World Happiness Report, 11/2025: Long-term behavioural studies have found increased cooperation among Americans between 1956 to 2017.*/*Yuan, M., Spadaro, G., Jin, S., Wu, J., Kou, Y., Van Lange, P. A., & Balliet, D. (2022). Did cooperation among strangers decline in the United States? A cross-temporal meta-analysis of social dilemmas (1956–2017). Psychological Bulletin, 148(3-4), 129.
How Cooperation dissipates: Collapse of institutions: 1) Trust Erosion: What breaks: belief in institutions. Institutions still exist, but people stop believing they work. Political signaling replaces function. 2) Knowledge erosion: What breaks: Transfer of expertise. Expertise becomes negotiable. Institutions fail to pass on knowledge. Entry-level ladders collapse. 3) Capacity Erosion: What breaks: Institutional capacity. Universities shrink, infrastructure decays. Talent pipelines erode. Institutions can’t function. 4) Algorithmic substitution: What breaks: Democratic coordination. Algorithms replace institutions. Governance moves to market signals, not public signals.
Gronin: 043026: Journal of Globalization Studies, Vol. 3 No. 1, May 2012 3–38 3 TOWARD A NEW WORLD ORDER? NEW FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM ОR WHY DO STATES LOSE THEIR SOVEREIGNTY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION? Leonid E. Grinin The process of globalization undoubtedly contributes to the change and re- duction of the scope of state sovereign powers. The list of threats to state sov- ereignty often includes global financial flows, multinational corporations, global media empires, and the Internet etc. At the same time (note that this point is debated surprisingly little and occasionally), since the end of World War II, increasingly more states have been willingly and consciously limiting their sovereign rights. And what is extremely important, many countries quite often give away some of their sovereign powers voluntarily. In the article, it is argued that the factor of voluntariness in reducing one’s own authority is, no doubt, the most important in understanding the future of the state. There are several reasons for such voluntariness and ‘altruism’, includ- ing the fact that such a restriction becomes profitable, as in return the coun- tries expect to gain quite real advantages especially as members of regional and interregional unions. The transformation of sovereignty proceeds some- how almost in all countries. However, it is more characteristic of Western countries. Keywords: globalization, state, sovereignty, reducing sovereignty, nationalism, global policy, civilizations.
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“Assessing whether the world is becoming more cooperative is a complex task, as it depends on various factors and perspectives. Different regions, countries, and issues may show different trends. Here are some considerations:
- International Relations: In some aspects, there has been increased international cooperation. Efforts to address global challenges like climate change, pandemics, and poverty have prompted countries to work together. Agreements such as the Paris Agreement on climate change and global responses to health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate some level of international cooperation.
- Technology and Communication: Advances in technology and communication have made it easier for people around the world to connect and collaborate. Social media, for instance, has facilitated the sharing of information and ideas, fostering a sense of global community.
- Economic Interdependence: Globalization has led to increased economic interdependence among nations. Many economies are now deeply interconnected, and this can encourage cooperation to ensure stability and growth.
- Regional Initiatives: Some regions have seen increased cooperation through regional organizations and alliances. The European Union is an example of a region where countries work together on various fronts, including economic, political, and security issues.
- Conflict and Tensions: On the other hand, conflicts and tensions persist in various parts of the world. Issues such as territorial disputes, geopolitical rivalries, and ideological differences can hinder cooperation.
- Nationalism and Populism: In some places, there has been a rise in nationalism and populism, which can lead to more inward-looking policies and a reluctance to engage in international cooperation.
- Environmental Challenges: The increasing awareness of environmental challenges has prompted collaborative efforts to address issues like deforestation, pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Initiatives such as conservation programs and sustainable development goals highlight global cooperation in tackling shared environmental concerns.
Ultimately, the trajectory of global cooperation is dynamic and context-dependent. While there are positive signs of increased collaboration in certain areas, challenges and conflicts persist, and the balance between cooperation and competition can vary across different issues and regions.”
The Penguin and the Leviathan: The Trimuph of Cooperation over Self-Interest”, by Yochai Benkler. In any given experiment about 30% of people do indeed behave selfishly, but “fully half of all people systematacally, significantly and predictably behave cooperatively”. This conclusions arises from surveying a wide range of experiments, in widely diverse populations. “In practically no human society examined under controlled conditions have the majority of people consistenntlybehaved selfishly.” “…public thinkers vastly underestimate the importance of the moral and social motivations woven into human nature. We tip at restaurants we’ll never return to. We lea to help one another during natural disasters. We yearn not only to be admired but also to be worthy of admiration.” “In classic essay ‘The Gift’ by sociologist Marcel Mauss, he argues that many cultures do not make the distinction between gifts and transactions. People see themselves embedded in a network of material, social and spiritual care. People give one another a hand, they lend one another an ear, they borrow and lend. The see these exchanges not as cold zero-sum transactions but as on-going supportive and recirocal relationships. We in the West have govne overboard in building systems that try to motivate people by appealing mostly to their economic self-interest. We build inhumane systems in which material incentives blot out social and moral incentives… NYT, David Brooks, 9/01/23 op ed.
Global maturation involves individual maturation: Transforming our institutions will only come with our collective emotional and intellectual maturation however. This will all be a part of our collective task in societal adolescence. How humans connect with each other using communications or transport technologies for example, or via formal and informal institutions and conventions which tie them together socially, at work or in law and governance, are still rapidly evolving and show great potential to evolve much further.
Game theory and the evolution of cooperation among animals and social insects demonstrate that opportunistic behaviors evolve to become cooperative over time. For humans, cooperation grows from trust, tolerance, wisdom and material security. Expect global economic growth and globalization of economies and cultures to engender greater trust, tolerance and cooperation.
A meta level of global unity and coherence is emerging, and with it material savings from reduced military needs and greater material efficiency in the global economy. The metamorphosis hypothesis implies and explains why this must be happening.
live peaceably with each other as individuals, tribes and nations, simply because cooperation is a better more efficient way to live. It may take us a while, perhaps centuries, to settle into such cooperation, but many animal societies from bacterial through insect to mammalian have stumbled upon and adopted cooperative structures and once evolved such structures can become stable.
insofar as we agree, we can align to common purpose, and in so doing give purpose to our collective purpose as human society in these adolescent times. In finding common purpose we may be able to reduce social frictions that waste energy and resources, and in achieving greater social harmony, our efforts will progress further faster.
Point: as people live longer, and with society’s accumulation of and access to information, people will find it easier to be wise and cooperate. Longer lifespans, greater societal stock of information, support more cooperative behavior.
AI: Spinoza’s vision of unity is rooted in substance monism, the metaphysical claim that there is only one infinite substance, which he identified as “God or Nature” (Deus sive Natura). In this framework, the universe is an indivisible, interconnected whole where all individual entities, thoughts, and physical objects are merely modes or specific expressions of this single underlying reality, rather than distinct, independent substances.
This unity manifests through several key philosophical principles:
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Immanent Causality: God is not a transcendent creator separate from the world; rather, divine causality remains within the substance itself. Everything follows from the nature of God with logical necessity, similar to how geometric properties follow from the definition of a shape.
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Parallelism of Attributes: Although the one substance has infinite attributes, humans perceive only two: thought and extension. The order and connection of ideas in the mind perfectly mirror the order and connection of things in the body, meaning mental and physical realms are two sides of the same unified reality.
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Rational Interdependence: Because all things are part of the same substance, Spinoza argued that human flourishing depends on recognizing this interconnection. This perspective promotes a rational, inclusive approach to ethics and politics, where cooperation and mutual benefit align individual interests with the collective good.
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Diversity within Unity: Spinoza’s unity does not imply uniformity. He celebrated diversity as an essential aspect of the whole, arguing that differences contribute to collective strength when harmonized through reason and understanding.
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Loss of privacy Equals cooperation: https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2026/10/02/g-s1-146060/san-franciscos-car-crime-has-plunged-how-much-credit-does-flock-deserve