Thread by @MarcelHarmon1

I would challenge your point that “No matter what we do, resources will remain scarce and people will compete over them.” First, there’s an abundance of evidence from the archaeological, historical, & contemporary ethnographic records of individuals & groups cooperating... 1/

https://twitter.com/mlcombatives/status/1345664858856058880

(employing some or all of Ostrom’s principles) to survive in environments of scarce resources (& not just hunter/gatherer groups). Not saying the evidence for competition (including violent competition) isn’t also there, or that the competition between groups isn’t also... 2/

what often drives the cooperation among group members (because it does), only that cooperation seems to have been most effective when these principles are applied (even as part of a larger competition between groups).

Cooperating (& squashing toxic individualism) was... 3/

often the only way they could survive – an adaptation partially driven by resource scarcity itself (or it’s perception of scarcity if not actual). It’s how the “tragedy of the commons” is avoided. I’d recommend reviewing a paper that... 4/

@David_S_Wilson co-authored w/ Michael Cox & Elinor Ostrom before her death - Generalizing the core design principles for the efficacy of groups (sciencedirect.com/science/articl…) as well as the work of @tmwaring (timwaring.info) or any of the other members of the... 5/

@CulturalEvolSoc’s Sustainability Working Group - culturalevolutionsociety.org/story/sustaina….

Second, in the modern world scarcity is much more about power differentials than it is about resources actually being scarce - power differentials that exist between individuals w/in communities... 6/

or between nations globally. Those extreme power differentials that contribute to scarcity of resources for some but not others feeds destructive competition between those individuals or nations (& you can lump status in w/ “resources”). 7/

And those extreme power differentials are nourished by toxic “individualism” – when lower level selection forces dominate higher level selection forces (like cancer cells within the “higher level” of the body).

Ostrom’s principles are about structuring social interactions... 8/

to benefit the group overall (at whatever scale you’re focusing on) & limit behaviors by individuals or sub-groups that benefit themselves at the expense of other individuals or subgroups, or the group overall. The ARC process is about engaging those affected to develop... 9/

the best contextual version of them to implement, w/ a recognition that they need to adapt to changing conditions over time (i.e., temporarily “tightening up” to wear masks during a pandemic). And principle 8 actually recognizes that groups arrange themselves in... 10/

hierarchies of ever increasing size from the nuclear family to the global scale. This principle is about implementing the other principles at each level.

Is this increasingly difficult to do as we move up the levels of interaction – yes. But it’s not impossible. 11/

I’d also recommend reading @David_S_Wilson's Does Altruism Exist? (amazon.com/Does-Altruism-…) & review the Third Way Series (thisviewoflife.com/evolution-comp…) that I linked to in my essay. 12/

While @rainforestbook's conversation was one of the last in the series, I’d recommend starting w/ it (thisviewoflife.com/evolution-comp…).

In your responses you seem to be implying that toxic individualism is inevitable, but I (& others) would argue that it’s a result of our... 13/

physical & social/cultural environments. By mindfully manipulating those environments, at multiple scales, we can limit it. We already have examples of it being done all the way up to regional and industry scales. If we don’t take it to the global scale... 14/

it’s safe to say the future of our species is in question.

Appreciate this thoughtful conversation. These are the types of conversations we should be having in our halls of government, in our classrooms, and in our boardrooms. 15/

@JoHenrich, though not specifically looking Ostrom's principles, his thread here actually covers many of the difficulties in implementing this at multiple levels:

https://twitter.com/JoHenrich/status/1345762780784152576?s=20

. Such analyses are critical for understanding the contextual nuances impacting the... 16/

implementation of Ostrom's principles. In addition to Henrich & others mentioned above & in the essay, I'd also recommend following the work of @MazzucatoM, @KateRaworth, and @MicheleJGelfand. 17/