Cooperative Coalescence
Cooperative Coalescence is a new cultural operating system for humans. Its purpose is to help humans more easily navigate complexity, and to create a stronger intuition of what it means to be an individual that is part of a larger social organism.
The core arguement of Cooperative Coalescence is that the foundational existential truths that the current dominant culture is built on are incomplete, and since they are foundational they are very difficult to question. The difference between these ideas we believe to be true and the actual truth leads to cognitive dissonance in the individual, and an inability for the larger society to effectively make the changes it chooses for itself.
The Old Truths
The foundational truths that I challenge are:
- The (human) organism is the highest and final organization in the hierarchy of life
- Change is created through a series of causes and effects
- There is a single, shared, objective reality that we all occupy together
These three truths together provide the basis for a worldview in which: (1) an individual human can morally make decisions for only themselves; (2) using a short term cost/benefit analysis based on cause and effect; (3) within a single shared reality of limited resources. This worldview is at the core of the current primary operating system, which is Competitive Individualism.
The New Truths
The updated truths that underlie Cooperative Coalescence are:
- The organism is both a whole being and a part of larger structures in the holarchy of life
- Change is created by the feedback loops of countless different complex systems that are highly interconnected, and circularly dependent
- Human "reality" is subjective and perceived differently by each person
These expanded truths paint the picture of a different worldview, where (1) individuals are naturally part of a larger whole, (2) the interplay between many complex systems guide decision making and understanding, and (3) each person experiences a different version of the world. This is the foundation of Cooperative Coalescence: "cooperative" meaning "working together", and "coalescence" meaning "coming together". Working together to come together. Combining all of our individual insights and understandings to get closer to "the truth", instead of fighting over which single perspective is correct.