Communication, Cooperation, Integration

            No one can do everything. Contrary to the values we indulge in today, and the faulty perception that paints individuals as marvelous, all powerful beings who have surmounted all of their challenges alone, we are rather limited without one another. This is not to say that the individual is not powerful; however, when we come together and align our talents, we develop a different sort of power that otherwise lies untapped.

            Cooperation, and more thoroughly, integration, brings people to recognize they are not alone – in their beliefs or their needs – and from there, provides an opportunity to explore both. By cooperating with one another, we establish compromise for a greater good. By integrating our knowledge and our talents, we strive further for the things that we all need. As it stands, we already cooperate and integrate with one another; however, we are not necessarily aware of how our efforts stack up together, and to what ends they lead. As mentioned before with cause and effect, nothing (and no one) is isolated.

            By working together, not only do we achieve that which we seek, but we further develop our personal strengths, the ones we pooled for common ends. Growth on a personal and societal level then paves the way for further growth in both realms, and no shortage of quality of life. However, in situations where people cooperate for the wrong reasons or with the wrong information, in the wrong way, the opposite may occur. Mutually assured destruction may be triggered consciously or unconsciously.

            Ironically, the solution to cooperation that results in negative ends is simply communicating to ensure cooperation and integration is positive. Communication allows us to acknowledge the needs and problems that we have in common. Sometimes our problems are only problems because we don’t know someone has the answer. Sometimes in revealing our problems, we uncover solutions. Instead of adding fuel to the fire based on paranoid fears and ignorance, we can communicate, learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and work together to meet all of our needs. We as people need to cooperate for the right reasons (self-growth, community improvement, creation) rather than the wrong ones(public image, personal wealth, destruction). We need to communicate to ensure we understand ourselves and others, and they understand us.  We need to speculate how our talents and knowledge can strengthen and be strengthened by those of others, particularly by those quite ‘different’ than us.