We the People? We the Pack.
Epsilon Theory
July 14, 2020·Politics
America promised our finest hour fighting COVID-19 but delivered the opposite: endemic disease, thousands dead daily, while Germany reports two deaths and Japan one. But the real failure runs deeper than political incompetence. Something fundamental has shifted in how Americans treat each other, and that shift appears to be permanent.
- The gap between what we claim to be and what we've become has widened past recognition. A nation requires shared meaning: a common understanding of what it means to be American. That meaning no longer exists, replaced by geographic and political tribalism where fellow citizens are viewed as adversaries rather than neighbors.
- Our domestic political structure has fundamentally transformed in ways that seem irreversible. The game we play with each other changed from one where mutual cooperation was possible to one where defection is the only rational choice. Once that transition completes, there is no going back.
- This wasn't imposed on us from above, though our leaders have been spectacularly incompetent. The failure belongs to the people themselves. We rejected empathy for those across political lines. We chose individual gain over collective survival. We did this willingly, even knowing the cost.
- The death of shared national identity creates a specific kind of trap. When citizens stop believing they're in the same boat, they stop making sacrifices for each other. This confirms their belief that the sacrifice was never worth making. The spiral becomes self-reinforcing.
- The question isn't whether we can restore what was lost, but whether we can build something new from the rubble. Something that works from the bottom up, powered by local action and renewed commitment to those immediately around us, even and especially those who disagree with us most.
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Thank you Ben and Rusty
I’ve spent the last few months wondering where shared sacrifice has gone in America. The same country that sacrificed sons and daughters in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and both World Wars in the name of liberty, unity, and standing for what’s right. The same country that gave up meat and steel and rubber in support of the war effort. The same country that wore “I heart NY” and NYPD/FDNY gear coast-to-coast after 9/11. Yes, there are dark sides of varying degrees to all of these examples, but broadly, Americans have been willing to put aside individual interests for the benefit of One Nation.
And now, we can’t wear masks to the grocery store to potentially protect the vulnerable? We can’t leave a few packs of freaking toilet paper on the shelf for another family? We can’t manage to stay a few feet away from people if we want to have a beer on a patio?
Thank you for your perspective, gentlemen. It is refreshing, and sadly necessary in our current world. Your work is inspiring your Pack to make a difference in their families, communities, and whatever else is important to them. Until we again become One Nation, it’s the best we can do.
America went
long on “Rights”
and
short on “Responsibilities”
Yeah, the pack is one of the most ancient survival skills. Not survival of the pack but survival of, at least, one individual.
I appreciate the conception and layout of the Cooperation Game and Competition Game. They are really useful for understanding decision making of an individual human in a social group, of humans. Also, therein lies that sweet seductive feint, that switch of reality for … what? … hope?
My experience with wolf packs points to a much starker and darker endpoint. When one or some of the wolves in the pack make a mistake, like not following the cooperation rules, they all die. Most often the whole pack just dies.
No 500 years in a different form. Just dead. And gone. Forever.
We have a precious gift. Let’s keep it alive.
Yesterday a second friend of mine lost their mother to COVID-19 (which is especially painful as it brings back all the feelings of losing my own mother in January – though not due to COVID). I am beside myself-level FURIOUS that people are not taking this seriously. I dearly hope you are right that this will be our finest hour, Ben.
I joined The Pack just now (it was long overdue), specifically for two reasons:
- To point out how vitally necessary I consider this post to be.
- Because it's time for me to start doing more to "put my money where my mouth is", and help out people like Ben financially as well as just morally and on social media.
It's money well spent, and well deserved. Sorry it took me so long to shake off the torpor and start supporting you like a Pack member should. Consider me activated, now.Kudos on this article, Ben! I’ll do the best I can to signal boost it on Twitter (my only meager audience at the moment), and everything referenced therein when I come across them as well.
#OurFinestHour
I share your anger, Tanya. It’s a cold fury.
I have long been of the belief that the seminal moment of the past generation was in the weeks after 9/11. We as a nation were in the right mood for a transformational, massive national volunteer (and military) mobilization. And yet the word from the White House was that the best thing we as citizens could do was to just “go shopping.”
I wondered if we were missing a tremendous opportunity then, and as each year since has passed I have felt like it was an even more important moment than I had imagined at the time.
Thank you! Great to have you in the Pack!
I feel for them. Yesterday I was at the funeral of a friend who died from Covid. SO MANY people were mask less at the service. The new gig is people who “wear” masks but leave their nose uncovered. Hell, I saw a guy with his on the bill of his baseball cap at a store today, Maybe it’s self-selection for draining the gene pool but the people who get it it take up room at the hospital and ICU. I bet LOTS of them are exercising their “freedom” not to buy health insurance, which should be tattooed on their foreheads. They can sit in the cellar while people who have insurance and took precautions are tended to first. This may be anti-pack, but even the pack turns on members sometimes, hence “lone wolves.” We have too many people who want to rebel against the pack maybe because it benefits others, like one of the games above, or think they’re too clever by half and reject the pack. Or they rebel against nature by nurture and want to MTPGA © (Make The Pack Great Again) seeing other win as their loss. Hell with 'em
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