You can compete or you can cooperate.

You can look at the world and see competition — or you can look at the world and see cooperation.

To see the world as competition is called “competitive frame”.

To see the world as cooperation is called “collaborative frame”.

 

The world can be competitive or the world can be cooperative,

But the way you see the world is your choice.

The way you choose to ACT — is your choice.

You experienced competition in this lifetime,

You experienced cooperation in this lifetime,

This informed how you perceive the world. What you view as competitive and what you view as collaborative.

The problem is that this philosophy you developed is now self-sustaining. It predetermines your actions — which in turn predetermine your outcomes — which then feeds back into the system.

If you learned that the world is a competitive place — what you do is attack the world, you compete, you view everything as a struggle for scarce resources and elevating yourself in a hierarchy. Thus you attack the world — and it attacks you in return. Your belief about the world being competitive is thus reinforced.

If you learned that the world is a cooperative place — you seek common ground and ways to cooperate with people. People incentivized by the mutual interest seek to cooperate with you in return. Your belief about the world being cooperative is thus reinforced.

 

Now, all of the above sounds logical — but this goes far, FAR deeper than that.

You may think you’re seeking cooperation but you actually view everything as a competition.

You may be friendly on the outside but hostile on the inside.

You may not wish no ill will to nobody — but you don’t wish him any good either.

You may not seek to attack nobody — but you are preparing for being attacked, you’re defending yourself, you’re presupposing conflict.

You may think you’re seeking justice — but really what appeals to you is that your competition is put down.

You may think you’re serving deserved criticism and sharing the gift of truth — but you don’t really care about others learning — you care about reinforcing your beliefs, and proving yourself right.

 

See we do learn in this world the idea of cooperation, obviously. Mutual interest does that,

The lowest rung of society knows only competition,

But most of society has some idea of cooperation,

Most society views the world as a combination of unending competition, with pragmatic cooperation to facilitate still getting ahead in this competition,

The closer they are with someone the more likely they are to view them more cooperatively, and less competitively. The more likely to share more

But the deeper you get to anyone’s psyche — the more it is dominated by this subconscious struggle in million invisible hierarchies

Here’s the true difference between COMPETITIVE AND COLLABORATIVE, beyond the surface of politeness and institutional cooperation:

 

COMPETITIVE IS A SWORD,

Sword can be used in defence,

or sword can be used in offence,

In defence or in offence — there is only one outcome — in which someone loses and someone wins,

Defence and offence are two sides of the same COMPETITIVE COIN,

Therefore there’s no such thing as DEFENCE without the OFFENCE. There’s no such thing as AGGRESSION without a sword. And there’s no such thing as NON-AGGRESSION with a sword.

 

Should you bury your sword?

As a rule, yes.

Will burying your sword make the world peaceful and cooperative? No.

But NOT burying your sword GUARANTEES perpetuation of conflict. Sword is the tool of conflict. Defence implies offence. Your defensive weapon is invariably an offensive weapon.

So as a categorical imperative you must bury your sword, no matter what.

You must turn the other cheek.

In practice this may mean that you die,

I believe it’s admirable to die for the ideal of peace,

I also believe it’s admirable to face the world as it is. Keep a big sword at the gates of your big castle — to deter aggression.

It is your choice if you should live and die for the ideal of peace — or live and die for the ideal of making the world better as it is right now. I believe both are right. Maybe this is just paradoxical.

Because for as long as there is sword — there is conflict and strife and war,

But only when there is not a single sword — is there no conflict, no strife and no war,

Only in burying your sword, and potentially dying for the cause — do you bring about the UNIVERSAL ideal. It may be tomorrow or it may be in thousand years — but in burying your sword — you are contributing.

But should you choose to make THIS CURRENT WORLD better — you can keep your sword, at the gates of your castle, and vow to never use it, unless absolutely fucking necessary.

 

And this is the point,

We learn this idea of competition, and it never quite goes away,

We get our first sword in the wake of our first conflict, and we never quite get rid of that sword, never quite outgrow it. It’s always there, somewhere. Ready for defence, which means ready for offence.

It’s very difficult to get rid of the sword, once you acquired one. It’s very difficult to get rid of anything which you acquired, psychologically.

I spoke dramatically of “dying for the cause” — but the life you live really doesn’t require you to die, not just yet,

You can bury most of your swords. Lower most of your defences.

You can cooperate and grow immensely powerful in that cooperation, constitute an immensely powerful whole.

But it’s hard to bury that sword anyway, because it has always been there, for so long that you had forgotten that it’s even there.

 

WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE, then?

IT’s a completely different paradigm, is it not?

There is no concept of loss for any party involved. It’s not a zero-sum game. There’s no strife for limited resources. There’s no hierarchy.

There is only mutual gain — or lack thereof.

There is only cooperation — or lack thereof.

There is no conflict.

There are no weapons. There are only tools.

And thus there is no hostility, no negativity, no conflict — NONE of those noxious concepts which we both dread and secretly obsess and fantasise about, in our dreams and in the products of our culture.

There is none of that nonsense. No preoccupation with strength and dominance. No preoccupation with overcoming and proving oneself (over who?). No drama.

There is only fruitful cooperation — and the elevation of the whole.

There is no judgement. This it the true meaning of “don’t judge”.

In the world of cooperation — there is nothing to judge, nothing to condemn. There is either cooperation — or not. That’s all the judging which happens — judging whether to cooperate or not.

If you “share values” — you cooperate.

If you don’t share values — you don’t.

This is all

 

Can you see now how this doesn’t accord with most perceptions we have about the world?

Let me repeat — DEFENCE IS OFFENCE.

And FEAR is aggression.

ALL of those “negative feelings” are offspring of the COMPETITIVE FRAME.

If you believe the world is competitive — you compete in return.

If you believe you are being judged — you judge in return.

If you believe you are being questioned, attacked — you attack in return.

If you believe people don’t approve of you — you don’t approve of them, in return.

It’s a vicious circle.

And it only breaks when you bury your sword.

And what then happens is almost magical,

You don’t judge and suddenly you are judged not.

You don’t attack and suddenly you are attacked not.

Suddenly the idea of judging or attacking anyone is just so stupid,

What does it achieve?

You either COOPERATE, OR NOT. This is how you achieve anything.

WHAT DO YOU ACHIEVE, in attacking or criticising or “hating” or expressing your fucking opinion?

You EITHER COOPERATE, OR NOT.

If you cooperate — then get to work. ACTION is how truth is expressed, not words.

And if you don’t cooperate — then there’s nothing to do, and NOTHING to think.

Therefore either you cooperate — or you don’t — and if you don’t — there’s nothing at all: no hostility, no negativity, no condemnation, no judgement, no nothing.

None of it is necessary, none of it is needed.

 

And is a little competition not needed?

To stress the system, and force the participants to continue innovating and optimising and improving?

The “I put you out of the business” kind of competition is NOT the same as “I kill you for your resources” kind of competition.

If business revolved around competition for limited resources — then yes — the name of the game is becoming stronger than your competitor, mafia-style — and grabbing those resources. And competition optimises strength indeed,

If business revolves around creating the most value for the world — so as to capture the most rewards from the world — then such competition is STILL cooperation. It’s like a competition whose going to make the tastiest cake. Whoever wins or loses — who cares? The cake gets better — and there’s plenty cake to go around for EVERYONE.

Play the competition-game, and improve in the process,

Win and lose over your “competition” — for FUN,

Understand that it is fun,

Understand that you are having fun,

It is fun. Don’t take yourself so fucking seriously. You’re alive — you’re creating value — this is good and this is fun,

There are no swords involved. This is not medieval war.

Bury your sword.

 

…so

will the angry world drop it’s sword at the sight of your smiling face?

No,

But it at least won’t lift it, which it would at the sight of your sword,

However the world will drop the sword — if you bring gifts, bring value,

If you appeal to mutual interest,

If there’s any value in NOT fucking killing you with that fucking sword,

So perhaps it is not so utopic after all,

If the world kills all the useful people — it will itself perish.

Whereas the unit which cooperates — it grows stronger, and the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

 

…but before any of that happens you must first UNDERSTAND,

Understand just how violent you are, deep within,

How scared,

How desperate for approval,

How critical and cynical,

And how ALL of the above are fruits of this LEARNED COMPETITIVENESS,

And that you can’t brush it off, that you must fully appreciate it, as it is expressed in every single thought that goes through your mind, and every single fleeting feeling that you sense in your body,

This is the level of commitment this shall require

 

Free yourself however,

And you shall only know love,

And triumph