“Now, as we pass the one-fifth mark of the 21st century, nearly everything distinctive about our species can be seen as a form of cooperation… That includes our capacity for symbolic thought, which enables us to encode and transmit large bodies of learned information across generations — largely in the form of stories. Genetic evolution gave rise to cultural evolution… [Multilevel selection leads] up to the nearly 200 nation states that carve up the planet today — and perhaps even offering a blueprint for cooperation at the global scale.” Evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, I Have Come to Bury Ayn Rand
To be an effective collaborator, both “defensiveness” and “collaboration” are necessary. On one hand, we need to know ourselves as well as have agency over our own lives to engage in meaningful actions. On the other hand, we need to understand groups and societies enough to collaborate and resolve common challenges. Blindly submitting ourselves to collectivism, we risk manipulation and groupthink; overly individualistic, we risk entitlement and oblivion. That’s why it is vital that we become the combination of both: a defensive collaborator.
Currently we have, however, an imbalance of defensiveness and collaboration in various societal settings. In more liberal settings, individuals are bound to identities — we make up our minds about who we are and decidedly follow identity lines, protesting and cancelling rather than building and consensus-making. Conversely, in more conservative settings, loyalty to traditions, groups or states overtake individualism, leaving us little room for self-determination. Due to their different perspectives and problem-solving approaches, liberals and conservatives avoid coming together and combating problems facing us all. Instead, we are tied up in tribalistic infighting, cancelling each others’ efforts, leaving some excluded or disfranchised, while people with money and power use this weakness of ours to advance their own agenda.
A better way is for us to find solutions through deliberation and collaboration while maintaining independent thinking and fending off manipulation as a defensive collaborator.
A defensive collaborator is the renaissance human of the 21st century. They have a healthy relationship with self emotions and deep understanding of self needs and thinking. With a growth mindset, they are perpetually learning and self-correcting through experimental actions. Through open life view and storytelling, they are capable of handling nuances and layers in life, struggling through moral decisions in pursuit of lifelong purposes. Recognizing the limitations of individuals and potential brainwashing in groups, they are able to negotiate and reach consensus with in-group or out-group others using game theory. Finally, they are willing to take on the unique challenges of our time, and when bullied by greater forces, they are brave enough to stand up, work with friends and allies, and defend their principles with “blood, tears, toil and sweat”. That’s why they deserve nice things.
This quote ▶️ from Chance the Rapper perfectly demonstrates the complex thought process of a defensive collaborator: “[From song “I Might Need Security”] ‘I ain’t no activist, I’m the protagonist. I don’t co-captain it, I fly solo like one cup in the cabinet’… I think I am an activist at this point [July 2020], I think that we should all be activists, think that we should all be active in the dismantling of white supremacy and creating a real heaven on earth. But [I] think how I was perceiving at the time [of writing the lyrics] was that an activist was a person that was absolute in their intentions and in their actions. And that they were streamlined in their pursuit of justice and equality, that they couldn’t really be pushed left or right. And I as the protagonist of my story will have, you know, missteps and faulty judgment in places. And I think it goes hand in hand with being the good guy — there is always the fall in the hero’s journey where, you know, you have to recalculate.”
In this quote, Chance the Rapper knows himself well enough to describe the changes in roles in his life story; he is reflective enough to recognize that there could be errors in his judgment, indicating a growth mindset and an iterative learning approach. He realizes there can be no absolute in beliefs or actions, exhibiting an open life view. Lastly, he calls for all of us to be activists against systemic bullying in the form of racial discrimination, showing that he understands the importance of defensive collaboration. It does not matter if you entirely agree with his politics or not. His thought process reflects that he is someone you can negotiate with to create “heaven on earth”.
We can also take a leaf from the indestructible fire ants: when encountering danger, they knit together to form a malleable, almost liquid-like surface, allowing them to be impervious to fire, water, and even squashing. Individual ants automatically get in place to play different roles when different formations are needed for various dangers. For example, the formation for flooding is different from that of squashing. This tight and adaptive net formed by hundreds and thousands of fire ants is resilient, flexible, creative, and badass. Be a fire ant, with independent thinking.
That’s what our time requires of us now: to grasp the integrative complexity of our circumstances with a focus on achieving common goals through defensive collaboration. A lot of us fall short of that: “my gut feeling tells me X is right and don’t know why others cares about Y. I am gonna vent on social media to show my support of X and distain of Z. But I end up being used by A for their agenda B.” A better way is: “I believe in X but after investigating the issue, I understand why others care about Y and consider Z which I wasn’t aware of before. I would want to achieve X with consideration of Z by collaborating with other stakeholders who care about Y. But if A tries to manipulate me for their agenda B, I am ready to defend myself and my allies.”
Game theory, where one’s payoff is affected by others’ decisions, is especially crucial to master in this interconnected and interdependence world of ours. Game theory teaches us how to make the best out of competitive group situations, and tells us when to collaborate vs. when to compete. “In a competitive situation, game theory can tell you how to be smart. In a cooperative situation, game theory can tell you how to be fair” (source ▶️).
Before we get into defensive collaboration though, let’s first examine the nature of groups in Groups We Are In & Their Significance.
Do you have any suggestions, doubts, hypothesis or experience for this topic? Please comment below 👇!
