Mutualistic Civilization

Why are young people so full of energy for change, progress, and innovation? Conventional wisdom says that it's largely a function of their developmental stage, which is certainly true. But I would like to suggest that there is another reason, working in tandem with the "development" theory:

We need to be trained to fit into our current social structure. Young people are not fully trained, and therefore are in a better position to raise fundamental questions. This seems very obvious, but I wonder whether this is universal. That is, I wonder whether the learning curve associated with falling in line is variable depending on the structure of the society. And I further wonder whether our current structure is particularly problematic.

Here's a suggestion: the preposterous economic model that underlies many of our social policies is unnatural. There are alternative, much more natural, ways of being together that would result in a much quicker and smoother learning by young people. There are, in fact, ways of relating to one another that require zero training.

Faced with a serious challenge, do we not quite naturally collaborate, form rank, and connect? Much like a herd of musk ox or bison protecting the calves, we align with little thought or planning. Those who do not are often suffering from their thorough indoctrination into the individualistic culture that we have created.

We have this heavy-handed, and poorly supported, mythology which says that people are inherently mean and selfish. Sure, people are naturally aggressive and cold toward those of a different tribe, but our tribes are merging and converging toward something much more global.

The retrospectively obscene treatment by one race/nationality of another (e.g. slave trade, and nearly any genocide) was only possible because there existed little to no empathy between the two groups. This is not the case for most people any more. Modern media and communication technology has made it difficult to impossible to observe even quite disparate suffering without a small sense of connection to those experiencing it.

Rights are spreading, and the notion that all people are people, and deserve rights, has been accepted almost universally. We are in the middle of a steep uptick in tribal convergence, heading toward a singularity of humanity (though we will likely never reach such an asymptotically approachable concept).

My point is that it is high time to throw out these concepts of an aggressive, selfish humanity, along with the training that makes people that way, and take a lesson from young people by adopting something that is much more natural: mutualism.