Mutual aid is why we developed such expressive emotions in the first place. Our emotions broadcast our physical and mental states, often without noise. We can begin to cry, and those around us know we are in pain without speaking.
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Christ my overly expressive face makes me wonder how the hell my ancestors decided they needed all this spoken language stuff at all.
It can be exhausting for the one giving aid, though. I have been supporting a friend by drawing down some savings and foregoing some luxuries. I judge keeping food on his table more valuable than those luxuries. But I don't want to keep it up forever.
Mutual aid is different from charity. Have they been trying to support you in the ways that they are able?
We live thousands of miles from each other.
That is a red fucking flag if I ever saw one.
I won't dispute that, but this is someone I knew in real life, not just an Internet acquaintance.
I can't fully discount the possibility they're deceiving me, but it would be out of character for them to do so.
This is charity, and is ok as long as you process it as such.
It's not really a mutual situation.
Veritasium released a video recently that explores how cooperation can evolve naturally, it was quite informative to me: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mScpHTIi-kM
What’s crazy to me (I didn’t watch your thing, I’m sorry; maybe they discuss it maybe they don’t) is that when you provide the basic needs of many species, they are also able to move into cooperative social structures. Even when we can’t understand how that would evolve for them.
Think about all the videos we’ve seen where an animal takes on care of another species’ young. Or forms a friendship bond that transcends predator/prey relationships. That really shouldn’t happen in the wild, and it probably doesn’t, but the artificial post-scarcity but non-enriching environment we give them makes it possible.
Turns out those basic needs are really vital, but once met, open a lots of species up to communalism and cooperation.
i maintain that cooperation is just objectively the best strategy on large scales, to the point that life on earth is fundamentally cooperative.
Like, imagine if species couldn't eat each other, if mushrooms didn't exist to break things down into digestible nutrients, we would have a fraction of the biomass and diversity we do now and life would be extremely vulnerable.
Cooperation inherently leads to more efficient resource utilization as species can specialize and resources are continuously recycled.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s not human nature per se that is the problem, but our incredible ability to adapt. Humans can happily adapt to live a life that is nowhere within their human nature, and it’s a real problem.
I know, but dear god it is hard at times.
Capitalism didn't convince me of that. Everyone around me did.
I don't want to dismiss your experience, but I will point out that everyone around you was most likely raised in a capitalist environment where greed is very much emphasised. Also, I'm sorry that the people around you suck.
Excuses.
it's reformist though. How isn't it anything but depressing sharing of whatever meagre crumbs the bourgeoisie kicks from the table. Coops are marginally better but at the end of the day you're playing a game whose rules you don't control.
This. Don't let billionaires gaslight you into thinking that capitalism is some kind of holy word. THEIR idea of "capitalism" is the 19th-century, robber-baron kind that benefits no one but themselves.