Visiting an Amish farm, riding on a flatbed wagon with metal wheels and three horses up front, I talked with my hosts – themselves guest helpers from another Amish farm not far away. They came to help Levi harvest his corn, lending wagons and young men for two or three days. I was impressed at this cooperative way of life.
When I mentioned this to my “English” host in this corner of Wisconsin, he confessed the same admiration. He had asked one of the Amish how they managed the logistics and social coordination of the harvest, the barn building and the like. The man thought for a minute, then replied simply.
“You English teach competition. We teach cooperation.”
The depth of this meaning took me for a loop, and I’m still lost in its exploration. Competition isn’t just a sport, or a bit of business jargon. It’s woven into American society, inextricably so. Sports, that huge business that has emerged from gladiator times, worships competition and rewards its victors handsomely. How else can athletes reach their pinnacle if not under the duress of competitive threat?
Business pursues domination, monopoly, and competitive advantage with a ruthlessness that is frightening. In this day of “disruptive innovation,” entire industries are broken and rebuilt anew, leaving behind shards of companies: traditions lost, pensions decimated, lives trampled.
Sex and fashion are highly competitive with impressive expenditures going to products that promise that slight but critical edge – the facial coloring, the zippered blouse, the cosmetic surgery that will win over. The styled jeans, the suit and tie, the steroids that pump a little higher than the next guy – necessary not only for victory but for survival in that “Jungle Out There.”
What of politics, that democratic institution that should embody the spirit and active expression of cooperative effort? Our government has become so divisively competitive it is now dysfunctional, failing to meet the needs of the present day, let alone the issues of coming decades.
So I ask myself the Amish question, “What would this look like if we taught the value of cooperation instead?”
No, no: businesses are supposed to compete! It’s the capitalist way that has made us such a prosperous nation, albeit for a dwindling few. It’s natural, by the laws of Darwinism, though many synergistic systems do exist, quite successfully. Maximum market share leads to shareholder value! Yeah, there are those Business Development partnerships; and “coopetition” was a concept we never really tried past the buzzword stage. Duopolies have been pretty profitable – but only because it keeps out all the rest of the competitors! Except for those market niche players that seem to do okay.
What would sports look like if everyone cooperated rather than fought to the last second? Although there is that part about teamwork. But that’s just for our own team so we can vanquish the enemy, that “non-hometown” team. Still, I recall the amazing displays of hundreds of Chinese in the Beijing Olympics, the center of world competition, as being more impressive than all the games themselves. Were those actors not also pushed toward perfection by the pressures of the moment, not for themselves but for the glory of something much larger? Seemed to work.
What if the temporary advantages that lead to initial mating were left unplayed? Would we be more likely to find truer matches, more fun and relaxed times, a lower divorce rate than 50%? We still like to look good and feel sexy; but maybe we could feel that way without the die-for perfume or the hot sports car. Instead of someone we’d desperately like to sleep with, we might try going home with someone fun to wake up next to. That lasts longer than intense sexual attraction.
A government that held the well being of its people over the glory of winning procedural battles, of garnering power and wealth for one side or the other? Don’t even get me started!
So I keep thinking about how cooperation could play out, if we were to give it a chance in this stacked deck of the American Wild West. With so many needs in the world, we might spread our talents to address many, instead of fighting over the low fruit. We could pursue sports in which groups from many hometowns contrive to build something successfully, inconceivably new and wonderful. We might marry the man behind the suit, the woman fresh from the shower, sans makeup. We might clean up our messes instead of leaving them for our children, and support them with the tools and inspiration they will need to find their own solutions.
It’s time for us English to learn a little about cooperation.