Ed Mayo: Making life more meaningful through co-operation
Co-operation comes naturally to humans, as well as other animals in the natural world, says Co-operatives UK Secretary General Ed Mayo in a new article for Resurgence magazine.
Mayo notes that, in the wild, dogs, swarms of bees, schools of fish and flocks of birds work together. Far from what we have been told about human nature being innately competitive and self-interested, people, he says, are programmed to do the same. He argues: “What keeps things going, what sustains families, what makes work meaningful, what contributes to our wellbeing and what really connects us to Nature is co-operation.”
He notes that current business culture celebrates lone entrepreneurs and businessmen, prioritising profit and competition and meaning that, in our unequal society, the winner always takes it all. Business, he argues, is geared towards developing leadership, meaning people are always comparing themselves with others.
However there is an alternative and Mayo reminds us that the co-operative sector has significantly outperformed the wider UK economy in recent years. Membership of co-operatives has grown by 18 per cent since 2008, to 12.8 million (one in five of the UK population).He draws on studies of economics and co-operation, such as A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution, and looks at the psychology of co-operation.
Mayo concludes: “The co-operative model is good for the economy. But it is also good for the soul.”
Read the full article online at www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3551.html.
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