How could a transition happen?
“The real revolution is the evolution of consciousness”
Anonymous
The cultural values listed in the previous chapter need (like any other successful culture) a good replication mechanism to be spread in the population (remember the chapter „The origin of competition“).
In this case it will be (hopefully) „usefulness“. That’s all. There is no preaching required, no fighting against other people is needed, no missionaries have to be recruited.
I believe the world view presented in this book offers several significant advantages even if you don’t live in a cooperative society yet:
- Inner peace. It allows you to forgive yourself. You don’t feel guilty anymore.
- A kind view of other people and groups. There are no despicable people and enemies anymore. As a result the world suddenly looks much friendlier.
- Compassion. You will feel the joy of many people. This will make you feel much more alive.
- Much better relationships to others. As you don’t have high moral expectations from others anymore, you will enjoy much better relationships with other people (including your partner).
- Much more satisfying sex. You will be able to get rid of shame and experience a new dimension of sexuality.
- A much less stressful life. No more need to invest into status products or accumulate riches for your children.
- You don’t feel under pressure to make your own children anymore. But you can of course.
- A bright future to look forward to. The future might bring us a kind of paradise. If not for you then for your kids.
The full transition to the cooperative society could happen as soon as a very strong majority is ready for this step. A large amount of mutual trust has to be built up first. In some cases other culture has to be replaced. Some of this culture has strong defense mechanisms against being replaced („if you stop to believe, you will go to hell!“). I hope that the usefulness of the proposed culture is so high that it outweighs these mechanisms.
How the transition will happen exactly is difficult to predict. As we have seen before, we need to find a good combination of „jumps“ and „path walks“ in the cultural parameter space to get there (see „Local and global optimum of a society“). Some of them can maybe be planned, others will just happen at some point in time. The process will probably take quite a few years to complete.
Unfortunately until then you will have to compete to some extent with those who are still on the competitive track. Otherwise another group will make you perish sooner or later.