To experience interconnectedness, we must act on it, and not just at the global or national level. Awareness of our interdependence should be a constant in our decision-making processes and an inseparable part of the resulting actions. We must learn how to think as a unit that consists of many collaborating individuals, rather than as disparate, separate, and randomly interacting individuals. And to do that, we must begin to recognize the benefits of collaboration.
Numerous experiments have already been made on the benefits of collaboration in the education system. In an essay called, “An Educational Psychology Success Story: Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning,” University of Minnesota professors, David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson present a compelling case for the “social interdependence” theory. In their words, “More than 1,200 research studies have been conducted in the past 11 decades on cooperative, competitive, and individualistic efforts. Findings from these studies have validated, modified, refined, and extended the theory.” [165]
Johnson and Johnson explain that “Social interdependence exists when the outcomes of individuals are affected by their own and others’ actions.” [166] This is contrary to dependence, in which party A depends on party B, but party B may not depend on party A. “There are two types of social interdependence,” they assert, “positive (when the actions of individuals promote the achievement of joint goals) and negative (when the actions of individuals obstruct the achievement of each other’s goals).” [167]
If we reflect on the Christakis-Fowler experiment mentioned in the previous chapter, and consider the long standing assertion of Kabbalists that we are all factions of a single entity, it becomes clear that today, acting individualistically is not only unwise, but is nothing short of a time bomb. Such attitudes do not recognize the reality of total globalization among all members of the human race. And when we ignore this fact, reality harshly sets us straight, as the 2008 financial crisis so clearly demonstrated.
After establishing the meaning of interdependence, Johnson and Johnson went on to compare the effectiveness of cooperative learning to the commonly used individual, competitive learning. The results were unequivocal. In terms of individual accountability and personal responsibility, they concluded, “The positive interdependence that binds group members together is posited to result in feelings of responsibility for (a) completing one’s share of the work and (b) facilitating the work of other group members. Furthermore, when a person’s performance affects the outcomes of collaborators, the person feels responsible for the collaborators’ welfare as well as for his or her own. Failing oneself is bad, but failing others as well as oneself is worse.” [168] In other words, positive interdependence turns individualistic people into caring and collaborating ones, the complete opposite of the current trend of growing individualism to the point of narcissism.
Johnson and Johnson define positive interdependence as “A positive correlation among individuals’ goal attainments; individuals perceive that they can attain their goals if and only if the other individuals with whom they are cooperatively linked attain their goals.” [169] They define negative interdependence as“A negative correlation among individuals’ goal achievements; individuals perceive that they can obtain their goals if and only if the other individuals with whom they are competitively linked fail to obtain their goals.” [170] Globalization entails positive interdependence. In other words, either we all attain our goals, or none of us will.
In order to demonstrate the benefits of collaboration, the researchers measured the achievements of students who collaborated compared to those who competed. “The average person cooperating was found to achieve at about two thirds of a standard deviation above the average person performing within a competitive or individualistic situation.” [171]
To understand the meaning of such deviation above the average, consider that if, for example, a child is a D-average student, by cooperating, his or her grades will leap to an astonishing A+ average. Also, they wrote, “Cooperation, when compared with competitive and individualistic efforts, tends to promote greater long-term retention, higher intrinsic motivation, and expectations for success, more creative thinking… and more positive attitudes toward the task and school.” [172]
In the previous chapter, we said that by performing acts of altruism we imitate the Creator—the life-giving force that creates and propels everything that happens. We also said that just as children become grownups by imitating grownups, we will become Creator-like by imitating the Creator. Without realizing it, by collaborating, these students were imitating the law of bestowal, where self-interest yielded before the interest of their environments, which were their groups. And instead of achieving in line with the group’s average capabilities, the students became straight A+ students.
Yet, what they achieved pales in comparison with the benefits that these students could achieve if they acted as they did in order to imitate the law of bestowal. In that case, they would discover that law and would achieve the purpose of Creation. Namely, they would become Creator-like.
Children imitate a role model that they want to become, be it a pop star, a successful athlete, or any person that they admire. Similarly, we must know that we want to be like the Creator in order to become that. It cannot happen “by mistake.” As beneficial and collaborative as the behavior of the children was in the experiment, to have a lasting effect they must do it with the goal of discovering the law of yielding self-interest before the system, and aspire to live it, to become it. Otherwise, their egos will take over as all the other people are overcome by their egos, and they will lose the great benefits that social interdependence offers.
Taking the Law of Nature as a Guide
Assuming that a world war, much less an atomic one, is hardly a desirable option to consider, it is far better to explore the other possibility—the path of light. In Chapter 2, we said that the term, “light,” refers to the sensation of ample delight that the desire to receive (which is our essence) experiences when it is filled with pleasure. Now we can add that the pleasure is sensed when we achieve the quality of the Creator, because this is what we want at our current stage of desire.
To obtain the light, we need not all study Kabbalah. We need to imitate the law of bestowal, knowing what it is that we are imitating and what we want to achieve by doing so. Just as children learn by imitating grownups, to acquire the quality of bestowal we need to imitate it in our relationships.
The book, Shamati (I Heard), contains talks that Yehuda Ashlag gave on various occasions. These were put on paper by his son, and great Kabbalist in his own right, Rabash. In talk no. 7, titled, “Habit Becomes Second Nature,” Baal HaSulam states, “Through accustoming oneself to some thing, that thing becomes second nature for that person. …This means that although one has no sensation of the thing [referring to the law of bestowal], by accustoming to that thing, one can still come to experience it.” [173]
Imitating the quality of bestowal in order to obtain it may seem simplistic or naïve, but at our current level of self-centeredness it is quickly becoming impossible to relate positively to any person, except, as we quoted Ashlag, “Out of necessity; and even then there is exploitation of others in it, but it is done cunningly, so that his neighbor will not notice it and concede willingly.” [174]
The solution, according to Baal HaSulam in The Nation, the paper Baal HaSulam published in 1940 (see Chapter 2, “Stages Zero and One”), is to “Attend school once more.” [175] In other words, we need to learn about the basic laws of Nature and the goal of life:
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At the basis of the whole of reality lies a desire to bestow, a.k.a. “the Creator.”
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At the bottom of man’s heart lies a desire to receive what the desire to bestow wishes to impart—total power, total awareness, and total governance.
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To receive the endowments described in the above item, one must become like the desire to bestow—the Creator—itself and thus automatically have what the Creator has. This is the goal of life.
Once we realize that there is a greater reward in a cooperative conduct than in individualism it will be easy to collaborate and to share, as described in Johnson and Johnson’s essay. Without this awareness, our egos will make it increasingly hard to do so, and will eventually prevent any such possibility, despite the obvious benefits.
In a rather picturesque depiction of the ego’s control over us, Baal HaSulam wrote that egoism is the evil inclination, and that it approaches us holding a sword with a poisoned tip. He describes how one is enchanted by the sword and becomes a slave to one’s ego, while knowing that “…in the end, the bitter drop at the tip of the sword reaches him, and this completes the separation [from the Creator] to the last spark of his breath of life” [176]
The above paragraph might induce the conclusion that Baal HaSulam believes all is lost and we are doomed to suffer. But this is not the case. We have a highly effective means that we can use to our advantage: society. We already mentioned the influence of society in brief, but in truth, society has such power over us that it can mold us into anything it desires.
In The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Ashlag asserts, “The greatest of all imaginable pleasures is to be favored by the people. It is worthwhile to spend all of one’s energy and corporeal pleasures to obtain a certain amount of that delightful thing. This is the magnet that the greatest in all the generations have been lured after, and for which they trivialize the life of the flesh.” [177]
Therefore, to alter our social behavior, we must change our social environment from one that promotes individuality to one that promotes mutuality. Practically speaking, we can use the media to show how group work yields better results than individual work, how competition is detrimental to one’s career, health, and even, ultimately, wealth. If we think that it is impossible, it’s because the media is currently telling us that it’s impossible. But what if it told us otherwise? We need to act out the corrected state and the corrected state will manifest itself.
Human nature is egoistic, so we naturally tend toward isolation and competition. But Nature’s essence is holistic, so it is naturally inclined toward cooperation. Acting like the rest of Nature, despite our inborn tendency not to, is our free choice, and this is what will make us similar to Nature (the Creator). Using the social environment to encourage us to follow that direction is a tool we cannot allow ourselves to miss.