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I think many in the rationalist community who are focused on coordination failures would greatly benefit from updating their understanding of the topic to what has been discovered in game theory in the last 20 years, particularly the literature on "global games".
This literature shows that the circumstances under which coordination on something universally commonly known to be bad is possible are very narrow and the problems that arise are more subtle, having to do with a failure of common knowledge (what everyone knows everyone knows etc
And public knowledge (what everyone knows but may not know about higher order knowledge of). This can usually be fixed by highly broad public discussion, unlike pure coordination failure. Thus the modern literature is less depressing, dispiriting and cynical and more empowering
And leads to a much larger focus on legitimacy and democracy rather than retreat into rationalistic dark Moloch worry.
