While walking this evening I passed a large group in front of a County building. They all wore the same blue shirt with white markings. Curious, I kept walking. In a short while, a few people passed wearing the same shirts. They were heading toward the large group I saw, obviously.
I stopped one and asked what gives. Turns out these people were educators.
“We’re attending a rally,” the woman said somberly. “Our negotiations aren’t going well.”
I wished her well.
“Thanks,” she said. Then, with a smile she added, “We gotta keep doin’ the work!”
Walking from that exchange, I realized how sad that was. I mean, cool that that educator keeps her spirits up. But it’s too bad so many resources are spent in opposition.
Imagine all the productive hours given up for this rally. Hundreds of people stood outside that County building. I’m sure they’re mothers, fathers, husbands and wives. Each of those people could be doing much more productive things. Much more enjoyable things. Spending time with kids, for example, or making love to spouses. Or hanging out with friends.
Or they could be grading papers…
Opposition creates waste
Instead, these people spend their off-duty hours “rallying”. Their opposition, meanwhile, is also probably spending time preparing for “negotiations” over terms which both sides can live with.
But what if we could get both sides on the same side of the table? Can’t we have “management” and “employees” working on a common cause so that their goals were mutual, their values common?
Well, we can’t in our current system. That’s because management and employees believe they oppose each other. And in many respects they do. Especially when it comes to costs. Because management sees employees as costs. And employees see management, those responsible for paying them, as trying to squeeze the most production out of them at the least cost.
They’re both right, of course. In fact, the entire system we live in can be seen as an adversarial one. Customers stand against proprietors regarding quality, safety, value and price. Criminals stand against law enforcement in “the game”. There’s the Right vs. the Left, Christians against everyone else, and, of course, there’s race, gender and sex. All subjects creating opposing sides.
Seen this way humans waste a lot of energy dealing with oppositional arrangements. It’s costly too and in more ways than financial. The oppositional nature of our world literally makes us sick.
There’s a better way
Continuing my walk I wondered how much better the world would be were everyone on the same side of the table. Copiosis makes that possible, of course. By eliminating cost, making almost everything people need available without needing money for those things and by making it unnecessary for people to need other people’s money, Copiosis reveals we all have similar values and objectives. If we could see one another as colleagues, not adversaries, how much better could society become?
The biggest oppositional threat today is humanity against nature. We extract, then put back wreckages of resources we use, ruining the planet in the process with litter and waste. We do this because it costs too much to remediate fully our own waste streams. And so, because of costs, we set up a society that opposes nature. Incredible as that seems. But nature is holding its own rallies. That’s a negotiation humanity will lose.
But in Copiosis even that existential oppositional set up is relieved. Copiosis makes it clear that the planet is on the same side of the table as humanity. And by serving its needs we also serve humanity’s.
Of course, so long as we must pay for what we get, we can’t resolve any of these oppositional dynamics. It’s the oppositional dynamic, perceived or real, which makes any progress really, really tough. Tough in the context of our current system, that is.
But in the New World Order that is Copiosis, the dynamic is seen for what it is: an unnecessary complication. A complication perpetuated by our current way of doing things. A way that, thankfully, is on its way out.