Living with people who differ - racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically - is one of the most urgent challenges facing civil society today. Though our society is becoming ever more complicated materially, we tend socially to avoid engaging with people unlike ourselves. Modern politics emphasizes unity and similarity, encouraging the politics of the tribe rather than of complexity. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation explores why this has happened and what might be done about it.
The book argues that living with people unlike ourselves requires more than good will: it requires skill. Cooperation is a craft. The foundations for skillful cooperation lie in learning to listen well and to discuss rather than debate. People who develop these capacities earn a reward: they can take pleasure in the company of others. Traditionally, rituals have encouraged human beings to bond with others; in modern society, however, traditional forms of ritual are waning. We need to develop new forms of secular, civic rituals which make us more skilful in dealing with others.
Together traces the evolution of cooperative rituals in medieval churches and guilds, Renaissance workshops and courts, early modern laboratories and diplomatic embassies. In more modern times, it explores the pursuit of cooperation among communities of former slaves in America, British industrial workers, socialists in Paris and Vienna. And it explains the trials and prospects of cooperation today: online, face-to-face in ethnic conflicts, among financial workers and with community organizers.
Exploring the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it could be strengthened, this visionary book offers a new way of seeing how humans can live together.
