This is the second of three short pieces on interdependence.
To start addressing these issues, I think we need to start altering our view of competition towards one another while still driving the best out of one another. Only then can we truly utilize our inevitable interdependence to a point where it benefits more rather than less.
The first issue is addressing the paradigm of division. In the interdependent world, there will be a chance to increase divisions or break down some walls. One such division is that between “haves” and the “have-nots”. Many of us tend to look at our town, city, country or world as divided in this way, whether we are conscious of it or not. This is a self-perpetuating world view that serves itself and those divides, building walls between us and the Other. From this perspective, we fall into the old trap of power. Those who have it, tend to not want to give it up. Those who don’t have it are systemically oppressed by those who do. This dilemma has burdened humankind for the entirety of recorded history.
But must it continue?
If interdependence is real, than we cannot afford to look at the world in this way. Interdependence, by nature, means that we need each other to continue. In an interconnected world, the cause of one person increasingly becomes an effect for another. And those tails are longer and longer – to include more and more people. For example, the effect of the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s accusations of a Sudanese leader could change the amount of Sudanese oil going to China, which would effect the price on the lorries transporting my Brian Dawkins replica jersey from the garment factory to the port. The price rises. We recognize our web weaving. Larger and tighter.
In the “have v. have-nots” paradigm, we often restrict ourselves to an image of a pie. When we look at the pie, we see the size of our piece and we want that piece to be bigger. Seems natural enough. We need that healthy competition to push us forward in innovative ways. At the same time, if we are increasingly interdependent, doesn’t it make sense to make a bigger pie so more people get dessert?
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My Russian friend recently wrote me with some good perspective on the image of the pie:
"I don't think in many cases its just about getting a "bigger" piece, but the fact that its a bigger piece than the other one - which makes it again the same way, somebody get a smaller one anyway!"
I agree. It could be from both sides. Not only that "mine is bigger and yours is smaller" but that "yours is bigger and mine is smaller". From that sense, almost everyone of us can empathize with a feeling that someone else always has a bigger piece (a better car, phone, family, nation of origin, daughter, face, wardrobe, etc.)
So perhaps a bigger pie isn't a complete solution. It would address some topical issues by allowing more people to have more access to things (e.g. healthcare, education, good governance) but it wouldn't solve the root problem: The issue of wanting to have more than the guy next door or the lady in the neighboring country.
I wish I could distill that issue into a word. I think its "covet".
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