Knackered Hopes for Cooperation with Benzos

   Hey there, Knackered here. Strolling through the park in relentless rain yesterday, I happened upon a group of crows fighting over a bag of chips.  The store was nearby and the item had likely fallen from a sack as someone walked through.

   When I first arrived, a fight was in progress over who would gain possession.  After much flapping, pecking and cawing, they flew into nearby trees and waited. 

  Finally just two birds flew to the sidewalk. Grabbing opposite corners of the bag, they pulled for all they were worth. Amazingly the bag split open, and though they pecked in earnest, nothing came of their efforts. They flew back to the trees leaving things on the sidewalk.     

   After a short break, just one bird flew down, grabbed the bag on the bottom and tipped it upside down, spilling the contents for all to feast on.  

   Crows are the bullies of the bird world.  They beat up on the song birds and think nothing of swooping down on you or I should we get too close to a nest. Yet they’d shown incredible intelligence and cooperation in the scene I had just witnessed. 

   The underground world of the plant community contains a natural realm known as  mycelium.  It’s able to weave a cooperative world of interconnected fungal threads in such a manner as to make up a lifeline for plants.

   This network becomes a maze of mycorrhiza (a symbiotic relationship between a plant and a fungus that is beneficial to both organisms) that partners with plant roots to provide nutrients, water and even a type of information that ‘warns’ trees and neighboring vegetation of  possible threats.

   Cooperation between all things is vital.  It naturally follows the actions of interconnectedness, where all beings are interdependent, but work together to solve problems.  

   It’s is a crucial path to achieving harmony and well-being for all. By collaborating with others, we contribute to the greater good, achieve harmony in society and lessen suffering in the world. 

   The theory behind the act of cooperation  states that everything arises in relation to other things.   In this way, cooperation is seen as a natural way to live. 

  Cooperation naturally leads to compassion and  a desire to work together to solve problems. It promotes intelligent progress in society as the values and goals of  individuals are brought together for the common good. Nothing, in truth, can exist in isolation.  Only in relationship to other natural conditions or beings do we find our own meaning for existence.  

    By finding methods to avoid the extremes of competition and self-interest, we can find ways to cooperate that will ultimately meet the communal needs of our society. We all have a social responsibility to engage in collaboration with others in order to achieve this end. 

     "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." - (Helen Keller). Of course we can.