Evolution Biology and the Simultaneous Policy:
Vision-Logic for the Next Stage in our Evolutionary Future
by John Bunzl
Founder,
International Simultaneous Policy Organisation
Evolution biologists are increasingly questioning the
Darwinist view of evolution which describes it largely in terms of competition
and natural selection in favour of a "post-Darwinist" stance that
more properly recognises the crucial role of co-operation. But since major
transitions from competition to co-operation occur only at certain critical and
short-lived points of evolutionary crisis, it is perhaps unsurprising that
co-operation’s significant role has hitherto been under-valued and under-explored.
Today, as humanity increasingly faces a critical point of crisis in terms of
our survival on planet Earth, it is essential that light now be shed on how
co-operation has worked in evolution, and how it can be made to work now if we
are to have a sustainable future.
Holonic progression to ever-larger scales of cooperation
An important theory underlying the view that
cooperation plays just as important a role as competition is Koestler’s concept of holons and holarchies; the idea that reality is composed of holons or "whole/parts": wholes
that are simultaneously composed of smaller parts and are themselves also parts
of larger wholes. For example, molecules are holons
and yet they are made up of smaller atom holons while
also being part of larger cell holons. The entire
system is a "holarchy": a heirarchy of holons or
‘whole/parts’ which is endless in either direction and in which each new
higher-level holon emerges out of its predecessor,
transcending and yet including it. The importance of Koestler’s
thinking is that it allows us to move beyond two-dimensional, systems-thinking
approaches to a three dimensional view of evolution which recognises not just
that it has span, but also depth, and that it is directional towards
ever-larger scales of co-operation.
Between each holon on the
same level there exists an inherent tension between its ‘wholeness’ on one
side, and its ‘partness’ on the other; i.e. between a
desire for individuality, and a need for conformity to the society – or holarchy - to which it belongs. This tension drives
evolution towards ever-larger scales of cooperation as evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris explains:
"There is a cycle of evolution that occurs all over, across time and
space, at the tiniest levels of biology, and in the largest cosmic processes.
It always begins with unity that then individuates—as in the ancient Vedic
creation story in which a little wavelet forms in a smooth sea, and forever
after is torn between loving its own individuality and wanting to merge back
into the One. This universal tension between part and whole, and among parts,
drives evolution. Individuation always leads to a kind of tension and conflict
[i.e. to competition]. And if the parts don't kill each other, they start
negotiating. Negotiations can lead to resolutions of some of the tensions,
moving from conflict to cooperation, and then to some new level of unity"
[i.e. to a new, higher-level, larger-scale
Of course recent human evolution is occuring primarily through cultural, rather than through
genetic processes. Nevertheless, the processes of cultural evolution – just
like biological/genetic processes before them – still tend to produce
cooperative organisations (or holons) of increasing
scale. In large-scale human societies cooperation is essentially made possible
by their forms of governance; by their political systems. An ideal
system of governance is one in which all entities in the system capture both
the harmful and positive effects of their individual behaviour, with harmful
acts being punished and positive acts rewarded within a framework which aligns
individual self-interest with the common good. As evolutionist John Stewart
points out, "cooperative organisations were formed through
the emergence of constraints that limit the independence of the independent
entities. These constraints (e.g. governance, management, etc) restrain
destructive competition and enable cooperation to emerge." In terms of the
evolving governance of human societies, we could thus identify the following holarchy: individual – family – local/regional government –
national government.
Cooperative global governance: the next level in the holarchy
The highly developed nature of global communications
and the interconnectedness of economies we see today (i.e. globalisation), as
well as threats humanity now faces such as global warming, global poverty and
ecological destruction etc, now presage a further move in this evolutionary
development; the emergence of a holon of democratic
planetary governance that transcends and includes the lower holons
in the holarchy. This, as post-Darwinist
evolutionists contend, is but the next natural – but by no means assured -
stage in humanity’s evolution towards ever-larger scales of cooperation.
The problem is that the present highest holons of governance – nation-states – are configured to
govern only in the national space. But under globalisation, the holons of global capital, trade and transnational
corporations (and international crime and terrorism) already operate in the global
space. Furthermore, we live in a world of competing nations who are unwilling
to relinquish their sovereignty to any institution of global governance and the
UN, not possessing any binding authority over them, is not configured to
provide it.
Indeed, far from co-operating to implement
appropriate global laws and taxes to balance the needs of society and the
global environment against the needs of transnational
business, governments are far more preoccupied with competing with one
another for inward investment and jobs. They are thus easy prey for free-riding
global investors and transnational corporations who
happily play one government off against another for tax breaks and a loose
regulatory environment. Governments, by the same token, destructively compete
with one another to boost employment and inward investment by down-leveling social and environmental protection laws and by
reducing corporate taxes. Or, as with the
But this governmental imperative to maintain
"international competitiveness" also has an important consequence for
democracy. Since the threat of capital and employment flight forces
governments, regardless of the party in power, to conform to a very narrow span
of market and business-friendly policies it necessarily reduces democracy to an
electoral charade in which voting no longer has any significant meaning. Little
wonder we have growing social unrest in deprived areas with a noticeable swing
towards Far-right political parties and, at the same time, widespread protests
against globalisation; and all this characterised by chronic "voter
apathy". All unmistakable signs that democracy – the system by which
negative feedback should be provided - is no longer functioning properly.
Hitting the age-old barrier….
But in evolutionary terms, is this destructive
competition and free-riding with its attendant dysfunctions and feed-back
shortfalls anything new? Indeed, Stewart identifies precisely this same barrier
to co-operation as preceding all major evolutionary shifts, such as the
formation of the modern eurykaryote cell from
associations of simpler cells, the formation of multicellular
organisms from aggregations of cells, and the formation of societies of
organisms from aggregations of organisms. This barrier to cooperation, Stewart
explains, applies "to all living processes. The circumstances that cause
it are universal. Individuals [i.e. individuals, corporations or nations] who
use resources to help others without benefit to themselves will be
out-competed. They will be disadvantaged compared to those who use the
resources for their own benefit. And the barrier applies no matter what the
evolutionary mechanisms are that adapt and evolve individuals. The barrier has
applied whether the evolutionary mechanisms are those that adapt corporations,
individual humans, other multicellular organisms,
single cells, or autocatalytic sets."
Sahtouris further points out that destructive competition and
free-riding are especially characteristic of immature species: "Young
species are found to have highly competitive characteristics: They take all the
resources they can, they hog territory, they multiply
wildly. Sound familiar? But a lot of species have managed to grow up, to share
things and territory, to cooperate. It's what keeps them alive." To
survive, therefore, humanity will - like all other organisms - have to grow
up: we will have to abandon the present immature, competitive paradigm
of international economic relations and evolve it into a mature and cooperative
one. The human species, like all others, is following the same cycle of
competitive individuation leading (hopefully) to negotiation, leading in turn
to a new higher level of cooperative unity. So, if we thought we were separate
from other species or somehow "above" them, the joke is on us!
…..and overcoming the barrier?
However, the barrier to cooperation is not
insurmountable, as Stewart points out: "If the barrier completely
prevented the evolution of cooperation, evolution could not progress", and
yet it has progressed and has done so, says Stewart, "by building
cooperative organisations out of self-interested components"; by finding
ways to make it in the interests of individual entities to cooperate.
But how can cooperation possibly be made in the interests of individual nations
when first-movers will suffer competitive disadvantage?
This impasse may potentially be overcome by citizens
around the world who are increasingly joining the International Simultaneous
Policy Organisation (ISPO), initiated in 2000. ISPO provides a process for
moving to a cooperative global society which requires neither nations nor
politicians, nor individuals to act against their interests.
The Simultaneous Policy (SP) is a range of legislative measures designed by ISPO’s members and their chosen experts to bring economic
justice, environmental sustainability and peace to the world. SP is to consist
only of those desirable measures which cannot be implemented unilaterally by
any nation due to the fear of first-mover competitive disadvantage and it is
therefore to be implemented by all, or virtually all, nations simultaneously,
so removing the crucial barrier to cooperation. With SP, no nation, corporation
or citizen loses out to any other.
Citizens all over the world are presently being
invited to "adopt" SP and are doing so in increasing numbers.
Adopting SP means they pledge to vote in future elections not for a
specific politician or party, but for ANY politician or party – within
reason – that pledges to implement SP. Or, if they have a party-political
preference, adopting SP indicates their desire for their preferred
politician/party to pledge to implement it. For politicians, pledging to
implement SP signifies their intent to implement it simultaneously only when
all or virtually all nations do likewise. As such, there’s no political risk
for them since they can make the ‘SP Pledge’ while continuing to implement their
competition-based policies until such time as all or sufficient nations have
made the SP Pledge and implementation can proceed.
But ISPO’s power to actually
catalyse cooperation becomes effective because, as citizens increasingly
adopt SP, politicians world-wide will increasingly be presented with an
attractive yet compelling "carrot and stick" proposition:- Making the SP Pledge is a strong incentive to politicians
because it involves no political risk and can deliver the additional votes of
SP’s citizen adopters. But with more and more elections around the world being
won or lost on very small margins (eg. by just a few
thousand votes in Florida at the last US Presidential election), failing to
make the SP Pledge could cost politicians dearly, for they’ll likely lose to
rivals who have made it to attract the SP voting bloc. Those extra votes
– even if few - could make the vital difference between winning or losing a seat, or even an entire election. By adopting SP
in sufficient numbers, therefore, citizens and previously apathetic voters thus
have a powerful technology for making it in politicians’ self-interest
to pledge to implement SP and, by the same token, to make it potentially
disastrous for them if they fail to do so.
An invitation to conscious evolution
By aligning individual self-interest with the global
common interest at every level, SP thus fulfills the
age-old requirement for evolution to progress, providing a practical political
technology for humanity to drive politicians and governments to cooperate for
the global common good. As Sahtouris recognises,
"Simultaneous Policy is an imperative if we are to evolve humanity from
its juvenile competitive stage to its cooperative species maturity. A wonderful ‘no risk’ strategy for finding agreement on important
issues in building global community!"
The paradox of all previous major evolutionary
transitions is, of course, that if left to reach a critical stage, competition
ultimately ceases to be a strategy for individual survival but instead becomes a
strategy for collective suicide. At that point – a point
humanity is now fast approaching - co-operation becomes in everyone’s
self-interest. But for wipe-out to be avoided and for cooperation to emerge,
not only is simultaneous action required to overcome the barrier to
cooperation; an appropriate catalysing process is also needed. This is
what SP potentially offers: a technology for global citizens to consciously
co-create the now-vital holon of global governance; a
world-centric governance born of an aperspectival
vision-logic that transcends and includes political parties and nation-states
and "through which runs the blood of a common humanity and beats the
single heart of a very small planet struggling for its own survival, and
yearning for its own release into a deeper and a truer tomorrow."
Adopt
SP now at http://www.simpol.org/dossiers/dossier-UK/html-UK/how_do_i_adopt_sp-UK.html It's free
International
Simultaneous Policy Organisation (ISPO)
http://www.simpol.org
Support other NGOs to achieve what's POSSIBLE today. And adopt
Simultaneous Policy (SP) to achieve what's NECESSARY for tomorrow!
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