Chapter 2: What Were They Thinking?
Digression: Government from the Paleolithic to Philadelphia
Page 52: Loyalty, Intimacy, and Bonding
SIS (narrating)
LOYALTY
is trust (and cooperation) on steroids.
Two women embracing while looking at their paint job.
WOMAN 1
I’m so invested in this other person that her success…
…matters to me.
It feels like my success.
She’s part of who I am.
WOMAN 2
I’m not merely open to giving her a hand…
…I really, really want to help her!
Jack Aubrey defending Stephen Maturin with a broken bottle.
STEPHEN
Have I given provocation?
JACK
You certainly are a repeat offender.
I’ve got his back, even when that’s not great for me.
People working a farm.
GIRL CARRYING WATER
As a community, we’re loyal to each other — we all feel we have a stake in our group.
HOER 1
We share the risks, as well as the rewards.
HOER 2
We cooperate for the community because we have skin in the game.
HOER 3 (startled by bear)
Literally!
SIS (narrating)
These feelings aren’t automatic. Trust is learned (and loyalty earned) from experience.
Specifically, from what we experience when we are vulnerable.
Chimps grooming.
SIS (narrating)
Our cousins the chimps do this by “grooming” (picking parasites off others’ backs). They’re vulnerable to attack when they expose their back and head to a potential rival…
CHIMP 1
Hold still…
CHIMP 2
But instead of taking advantage, she’s taking care of me!
SIS (narrating)
This trust-building exercise builds two-way relationships of reciprocal altruism.
[EDIT SUGGESTION: CHANGE “TWO-WAY” TO “ONE-ON-ONE”]
CHIMP 3
I scratch your back, you scratch mine!
SIS (narrating)
Which is nice, but it’s no basis for a system of government.
Chimp grooming Donald Trump.
SIS (narrating)
Even though we share almost all our DNA with them, humans are not chimps. We don’t bond by grooming each other… we don’t have “alpha males” (no, we really don’t)…
CHIMP
Do hold still, Mister President!
TRUMP
Tweetin’ like an alpha!
Examples of human society: Barn raising, big church service, large protest, downtown Manhattan skyline, Napoleonic-era army charging forward, United Nations.
SIS (narrating)
…and human society is not chimp society.
We come together in communities we know practically as well as ourselves…
…and with masses of people…
…we haven’t even met.
Chimp barber cutting a human’s hair.
SIS (narrating)
To form these kinds of relationships, grooming just ain’t gonna cut it.
CHIMP BARBER
Life’s too short!
SIS (narrating)
We have many more ways to experience vulnerability and reinforce our trust in each other. For example…
Napoleonic-era soldiers on the march.
SIS (narrating)
We share harships…
SOLDIER 1
We’ve been through hell together.
SOLDIER 2
I’d give my life for these guys.
Women sharing a secret.
SIS (narrating)
We share secrets…
HEARER
She trusts me with this!
WHISPERER
I’d be mortified if anyone else knew!
Woman helping a man with a big blueprint.
SIS (narrating)
We share the load…
MAN
I couldn’t have done this without her help.
WOMAN
I feel like his goal is my goal, now.
People voting on election day.
SIS (narrating)
We share beliefs and practices…
VOTERS
This is how it’s supposed to work!
Two girls claiming the same guy.
GIRL 1
…We share everything!
GIRL 2
Wrong.
SIS (narrating)
None of this is possible unless we can share something more…
Human-scale cooperation demands that we know more than our own personal feelings about the people we interact with. We need to know how they feel about us… and about each other.
Loving couple.
GIRLFRIEND
Intimacy! We can be completely vulnerable with each other.
Men seeing the couple while carrying a heavy load.
MAN 1
Excellent. If he helps us, then we can count on her help, too!
MAN 2
Not so fast — she faked being sick last time we needed her.
Gossiping women.
GOSSIP 1
That’s just because she wanted to go “hunting” with his brother.
GOSSIP 2
*Gasp* What will the neighbors think?
SIS (narrating)
We must be able to share our thoughts.
And for the longest time, we couldn’t.
Average Joe and Sis.
JOE
Framers…
SIS
Getting there!
.
Finally, here is the second half of that page. Had to put this project on the back burner for a spell, but (knock on wood) I think we can get back to something like the old posting frequency.
Yes, I know this page is ultra simplistic. Just laying a brief foundation for the more substantive stuff that’s coming up in the next pages. I’m looking forward to it!
looks like you’re setting us up for a wholistic philosophy of how imperfect humans might live together securely, fairly, and with mutual benefit which is what government of/by/for the people governed is supposed to be.
So loyalty is both earned and necessary, but can be easily lost if it is not reciprocated.
And Loyalty is dependent on trustworthiness, cooperation, and effort from all parties.
More people need to understand this, thank you.
What’s going on with the colonial-dress guy and the broken bottle?
I believe he’s about to get into a fight that was caused by his friend…for the sake of defending his friend.
Looks like Lucky Jack Aubrey defending Stephen Maturin to me.
I was just about to say, but I couldn’t remember which Napoleonic war at sea series it was.