The truth is that human beings have a genius for cooperation. It ain’t our opposed thumbs or our ability to make tools that separates us from the animals as some say. It sure ain’t our ability to think. Just watchin’ television for a week will convince you that humans ain’t no great shakes at thinkin’. No, none of those things separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom. In fact, nothing does. We are animals; briefcase carryin’, mortgage owin’, fast food chompin’ primates on an ego trip. It’s only our vanity that separates us from the rest of the animals and considerin’ how arrogant my cats are, I’m not even sure there’s a good case for that argument.

Yep, we’re just part of nature’s plan, one more biological infection of the planet’s crust and we share many things with the other animals. That includes a brilliant sense of cooperation.

Most of us swallow the media hoorah about the way the world really is. We just watch the tube and never think about if what we see matches our day to day experience. The world the media is sellin’ is a sorry place. Nobody can get along. If you take the media’s view as gospel, you may find it hard to believe that humans cooperate effectively but consider this. Have you ever watched a bed of ants or a hive of bees and been amazed that they were able to cooperate so well for the good of their community? They build complicated structures to house and protect their young, feed themselves and defend their home cooperatively.

Just for a second, imagine you are flying along like Superman, fifteen stories high, over any big city. Look down. See the way those tiny folks rush down the sidewalks during rush hour and lunch. Tens of thousands of them moving together, hurrying about their business. Remind you of anything?

Have you ever seen a flock of geese on the wing move together as a group in difficult and complex maneuvers. Fish in a school do the same thing. It defies logic, doesn’t it. Okay Superman, fly over to the freeway and take a look at the way the cars are moving down below. How in the world can so many individuals weave in and out of such complicated roadways at such high speeds without creating the world’s worst pileup? Sure, there are traffic accidents on the road but it’s a miracle that the freeway system works at all. How do we do it?

“Hold on,” you say. “This is crazy. Why, human beings have never gotten along. Look at wars, crime, racism and divorce rate. That proves we can’t cooperate.” Nope, that just proves we have a hard time doing it on purpose. I mentioned we aren’t too good at thinking. When individuals try to cooperate, they often have a hard time. Cooperatin’ with your wife, your husband or your neighbor is a mite more tryin’ than drivin’ down the freeway, a task most of us can do while downing a Big Mac and arguin’ on a cellular phone. Cooperation is somethin’ that’s built into us down deep. We build cities, form nations and go to the moon in an incredibly complex web of cooperation that boggles the brains of our fanciest super-computers.

Sure, people are competitive and narrow-minded. Most of us don’t listen and we all argue, even with the ones we love. But, if we were as ornery a species as we appear to be, how come we are still here? Back in the fifties and sixties, we were all scared to death the world was about to end in an atomic holocaust. Why didn’t it? Given the popular opinion that we are selfish, difficult and out of control, how come we’re not radioactive slag?

The reason is that any animal that sees a threat in its environment will do what it can to face the threat. Humans use cooperation as their number one method of facin’ adversity. This started back at the dawn of politics when two small cave men ganged up on one big cave man. They cooperated to knock off the big guy, then formed a hunting group, then a tribe...next thing you know we have the government of the United States, which is basically the same deal with high-falutin’ trappings.

Congress is a good example of this trait in human beings. Everybody knows the government is a disorganized, partisan, self-serving mess. It is also the most advanced form of cooperation on the planet. Enormous political and economic resources are moved from place to place Huge shifts in the economy and the culture are monitored and managed over longs periods of time. Massive projects are created and managed over generations. In truth, it is a grand and glorious instrument of human cooperation, perhaps the greatest of all time. Now, if you have ever met a politician or watched Congress on C-span, you know that this could not be happening on purpose. Even the ablest of these men and women do not have the smarts and vision to hold the entire process in their heads. The entire American experiment has happened the same way that geese flock, fish school and freeway drivers drive, unconsciously and without effort. All that other stuff we see on TV is just “...sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

This talent for cooperation in human beings gives me hope for the world. I doubt human beings can create peace on earth on purpose but they may end up doing it without trying. The human animal wants to survive and war is becoming too dangerous to mess with. Racism and oppression and intolerance have started wars since the dawn of time so it may be that the days of such unpleasant institutions are numbered. I’m for that. Future generations may look back some day and decide that the invention of the atomic bomb did more for humanity than any invention in history, not as a weapon, but as a threat to wake us up.

Not that I’m suggesting that we are are going to wise up individually. No way! After 193 years on this planet I am sure not going to make the mistake of thinking that people are going to get any sense. But, perhaps we don’t have to. Perhaps there is something deep down inside us that has known for a long time that we hafta cooperate or die. Maybe that part of us has been running the show all along and we just don’t know it. We better hope so.