The recorded history of humanity goes back 5,000 years. After that we are in the territory of myth. In that 5,000 years how have we achieved “progress”? And I mean across the board, culture, politics, religion, food, shelter, science…. Well, you are not going to like the answer. The broadest answer includes words like competition, adversarial process, win-lose, all or none, aggression, war. When Cooperation historically occurs, it is a subset of the preceding. When we cooperate, it is usually or always to overcome someone or something else we are seeking to vanquish, like the enemy, the other party, hunger, disease, death, evil. When this occurred to me, I was floored. Competition and cooperation form a polarity. They form an opposition like good and evil, up and down, in and out, with me or against me. Do you get the drift? It occurred to me that in the most fundamental way, we have made progress by fighting with each other…for 5,000 years…or more. Overall, we do not yet know how to, or are not interested in achieving progress by cooperation. I believe this is so because...