My Brother's Keeper

We share the same mental and physical space. Neurons firing in the same body, sending our currents across the Earth's body in ever increasing amounts at higher velocities.
Apparent chaos gives birth to the functional conception of individuality.
I think I am, therefore I am separate.
We are deluding ourselves into non-cooperative games by mutually assured distraction. A series of petty struggles have defined the history of our species and have led, self-evidently, to our current state of existence. One may argue that this dialectic process has been, by military necessity, a central incentive in the progress of humanity.
Doubtlessly we benefit from the cumulative advancements of human knowledge. The Age of Reason has coupled with Commercialism and bore the triplets named Comfort, Leisure and Waste. While the latter is an indicator of our inefficiency in the conversion of work into energy, the luxury of Western civilization allows its members the unique opportunity to lay down the tools of oppression, that have been so necessary in the maintenance of the pre-Information Age's social structure, and embrace universal cooperation as the rational subsequent stage of our evolutionary process.
It has been found that players in Prisoner's Dilemma models will generally follow the selfish, but somewhat safe, route of betraying their partner. However, players with prior experience become more likely to play cooperatively, thus maximizing their gain. Perhaps the time has come to accept our national, individual and global histories- to stop creating common myths in order to achieve community and to simply accept our mistakes and common fate to overcome our fears. Systematically behaving as teenagers we assume that our mastery of reason is impregnable, our decisions irrefutable.
Yet, we rely on coercion and combustion engines, understand our social roles through the lens of sitcom screenwriters and our self-image is designed by advertisers. We strive for death, numbing the sensations of everyday life with pharmaceuticals. In our vehement rejection of the inevitability of Death we deny the blessing of Life and become the very champions of death through our unwillingness to live happy, fulfilling lives. We accept mediocre roles, sure that we are incapable and undeserving of something better. In rejecting our natural inclinations we inhibit, a priori, the fulfillment of our creative potential resulting in a net loss for our civilization.
Thomas Hobbes argued that the good of the elite depends on the overall prosperity of society as a whole, in this he was right. We are a big dysfunctional family and while we refuse to take care of each other, we will continue to suffer at the hands of our own ignorance. As children of this empire, we have the historical opportunity to enfranchise those less fortunate- if only we accept our co-dependence.


Know Thyself and Take Responsibility