About a decade ago I was in the far, far north of Eastern Australia, at a remote public school serving the Aboriginal village of Lockhart River. All the students were black/Aboriginal and all but one of the teachers was white, all from other parts of Australia. I interviewed several of them, and one made the most interesting observation.

"These kids are from a cooperator culture, not a competitor culture," he said, pointing out that cooperation was what kept Aboriginal society intact and functioning for tens of thousands of years. "When we taught them to play soccer, they changed the rules so that they play until both teams have the same score. That is when they end the game."

We need more cooperation in the world. Consider this example (with special thanks to my old friend and editor Dave deBronkart for the tip on this):

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