Plays Well With Others

I recently read this article by Stephen Hawking about Brexit, in which he argued that the way we understand and share wealth played a large role in the decision. He stated that a narrow definition of wealth and a failure to divide it more fairly makes him less than optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species. “We live in perilous times… the pressing issues we face will require us to collaborate with a shared vision and cooperative endeavor to ensure that humanity can survive. We will need to change some of our fundamental assumptions about what we mean by wealth, possessions, mine and yours. Just like children, we will have to learn to share.”

I find this very relevant to what is going on in America right now. And the analogy to children got me thinking....

Adults insist that children learn to share, driven by the innate understanding that fairness leads to harmony. And the sense that, at least on play dates, equality is a fundamental right that children have.

But in the adult world, the rules change. It becomes every man for himself-- acquire as much as you can and if, for whatever reason, you can't; tough luck; you lose. It is thanks to this shift in values that we now have a classic playground bully running for president-- a man who perfectly exemplifies the kid who does NOT play well with others.

We complain about and denigrate him (understandably) and yet we have ourselves partly to blame. We unquestioningly go along with this value shift—from fostering cooperation to glorifying competition, tossing out the most crucial thing we learned in preschool. There is no benevolent authority figure to ensure our equal rights to this planet's wealth and resources.

Some children are by nature more aggressive, demanding and competitive-- my son for one. And other children are more gentle, cooperative and collaborative, like my daughter. (Apologies for the gender conformity-- they just came out that way!) So I have seen what’s happening on a global scale take place in my living room time and time again. There are some personalities that have the will and ability to take all the toys for themselves. When it comes to children, we don’t abide by it. So why is it okay for adults?

When we encourage children to share, (the key being encourage, as opposed to force) the result is more harmony and peace. Being taught how to share is not punishing the children who would otherwise take all the toys. It is helping them. Because having all the toys doesn’t make them happy. What does make them happy is getting along with their peers, feeling connected and appreciated. Sharing, with an aim toward fairness and equality is good for everyone, not just those who are more passive or disadvantaged.

And if you look at the global peace index you can see that the same holds true for adults. Ranking the nations of the world according to their levels of peacefulness, we can see which attitudes, institutions and structures create a peaceful society. There are 8 inter-related structures: a sound business environment, a well functioning government, an equitable distribution of resources, the free flow of information, low levels of corruption, acceptance of the rights of others, high levels of education, good relations with neighbors. The US currently ranks 103 out of 163. There’s a good amount of research from all over the world that suggests that places with pronounced income inequality are more likely to have high rates of violent crime. Our estimated national cost of violence is US$ 2,028,740,716,654.

Inequality comes at a great cost to us all, not just those deprived of their share. The people who do well in this system are faced with living in a more violent world. Is it worth it? That's a rhetorical question, of course.

It is time for us to step up and collectively become that benevolent authority figure ensuring equal access to this wealth and resources. It's time to create a new system that enables everyone to play nicely and share equally.