Humankind
Page 38
14. Keltner, The Power Paradox, pp. 137–58.
15. Varun Warrier et al., ‘Genome-Wide Analyses of Self-Reported Empathy: Correlations with Autism, Schizophrenia, and Anorexia Nervosa’, Nature, Translational Psychiatry (12 March 2018).
16. Lord Acton, ‘Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton’ (5 April 1887), published in J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence (eds), Historical Essays and Studies (London, 1907).
17. Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics. Power and Sex Among Apes (Baltimore, 2007), p. 4. Originally published in 1982.
18. Frans de Waal and Frans Lanting, Bonobo. The Forgotten Ape (Berkeley, 1997).
19. Natalie Angier, ‘In the Bonobo World, Female Camaraderie Prevails’, New York Times (10 September 2016).
20. Frans de Waal, ‘Sex as an Alternative to Aggression in the Bonobo’, in Paul R. Abramson and Steven D. Pinkerton, Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture (Chicago, 1995), p. 37.
21. Christopher Boehm, ‘Egalitarian Behavior and Reverse Dominance Hierarchy’, Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, Issue 3 (1993), p. 233.
22. Christina Starmans, Mark Sheskin and Paul Bloom, ‘Why People Prefer Unequal Societies’, Nature Human Behaviour, Vol. 1, Issue 4 (2017).
23. See also Rutger Bregman and Jesse Frederik, ‘Waarom vuilnismannen meer verdienen dan bankiers’, De Correspondent (2015).
24. The best-known advocate of this theory is Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Sapiens (2011).
25. Robin Dunbar, How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Clues (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 2010), p. 26.
26. The most persuasive defence of this theory is in Ara Norenzayan, Big Gods (2013). See also Harvey Whitehouse et al., ‘Complex Societies Precede Moralizing Gods Throughout World History’, Nature (20 March 2019) and Edward Slingerland et al., ‘Historians Respond to Whitehouse et al. (2019), “Complex Societies Precede Moralizing Gods Throughout World History”’, PsyArXiv Preprints (2 May 2019).
27. Harari, Sapiens, p. 34.
28. Douglas W. Bird et al., ‘Variability in the organization and size of hunter-gatherer groups: Foragers do not live in small-scale societies’, Journal of Human Evolution (June 2019).
29. Hill et al., ‘Hunter-Gatherer Inter-Band Interaction Rates. Implications for Cumulative Culture’.
30. Graeber and Wengrow, ‘How to Change the Course of Human History (at Least, the Part That’s Already Happened)’.
31. Machiavelli, The Prince, p. 149.
32. David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules. On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy (Brooklyn and London, 2015), pp. 31–3.
33. This is why serious economists were able to predict early on that the myth we call ‘Bitcoin’ was doomed to fail while the dollar will prevail for many more decades. The dollar is backed by the world’s most powerful army, whereas the Bitcoin is backed only by belief.
34. Harari, Sapiens, p. 153.
35. Quoted in Noam Chomsky, ‘What is the Common Good?’, Truthout (7 January 2014).
36. Just how effective shaming can be was recently proved yet again by the #MeToo movement. Starting in October 2017, thousands of women took down a succession of male aggressors in a way strongly reminiscent of how bonobo females rein in antagonists and nomadic tribes tame bullies. By publicly humiliating the perpetrators, others will think twice before engaging in similar behavior.
37. Olivia Solon, ‘Crazy at the Wheel: Psychopathic CEOs are Rife in Silicon Valley, Experts Say’, Guardian (15 March 2017). See also Karen Landay, Peter, D. Harms and Marcus Credé, ‘Shall We Serve the Dark Lords? A Meta-Analytic Review of Psychopathy and Leadership’, Journal of Applied Psychology (August 2018).
12 What the Enlightenment Got Wrong
1. C. P. Snow, ‘Science and Government’, The Godkin Lectures (1960).
2. David Hume, ‘Of the Independency of Parliament’, in Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1758, Part 1).
3. See the famous poem by Bernard Mandeville ‘The Grumbling Hive: Or, Knaves turn’d Honest’, The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits (1714).
4. Marshall Sahlins, The Western Illusion of Human Nature (Chicago, 2008), pp. 72–6.
5. His Holiness Pope Francis, ‘Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone’, TED Talks (April 2017).
6. Ara Norenzayan, Big Gods (Princeton, 2013), p. 75.
7. If you don’t believe it, this will set you straight: Hans Rosling, Factfulness. Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (New York, 2018).
8. For an overview, see the first chapter of my previous book Utopia for Realists (London, 2017).
9. See, for example, Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Ithaca, 1989), and Roger Griffin, Modernism and Fascism. The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler (Basingstoke, 2007).
Part 4 A New Realism
1. Quoted in Hanna Rosin and Alix Spiegel, ‘How to Become Batman’, NPR (23 January 2015).
2. Quoted in Katherine Ellison, ‘Being Honest About the Pygmalion Effect’, Discover Magazine (December 2015).
3. Ibid.
4. Dov Eden, ‘Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and the Pygmalion Effect in Management’, Oxford Bibliographies (20 October 2016).
5. Lee Jussim and Kent D. Harber, ‘Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies’, Personality and Social Psychology Review (1 May 2005). See also Rhona S. Weinstein, ‘Pygmalion at 50: harnessing its power and application in schooling’, Educational Research and Evaluation (11 December 2018).
6. Dov Eden, quoted in Ellison, ‘Being Honest About the Pygmalion Effect’.
7. Franklin H. Silverman, ‘The “Monster” Study’, Journal of Fluency Disorders, Vol. 13, Issue 3 (1988).
8. John C. Edwards, William McKinley and Gyewan Moon, ‘The enactment of organizational decline: The self-fulfilling prophecy’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 10, Issue 1 (2002).
9. Daisy Yuhas, ‘Mirror Neurons Can Reflect Hatred’, Scientific American (1 March 2013).
10. John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (London, 1936), Chapter 12.
11. Dan Ariely, ‘Pluralistic Ignorance’, YouTube (16 February 2011).
12. Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), pp. 561–5.
13 The Power of Intrinsic Motivation
1. Hedwig Wiebes, ‘Jos de Blok (Buurtzorg): “Ik neem nooit zomaar een dag vrij”,’ Intermediair (21 October 2015).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Haico Meijerink, ‘Buurtzorg: “Wij doen niet aan strategische flauwekul”,’ Management Scope (8 October 2014).
5. Gardiner Morse, ‘Why We Misread Motives’, Harvard Business Review (January 2003).
6. Quoted in ibid.
7. Frederick Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (New York, 1911), Chapter 2, p. 59.
8. Quoted in Robert Kanigel, The One Best Way. Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency (Cambridge, 2005), p. 499.
9. Edward L. Deci, ‘Effects of Externally Mediated Rewards on Intrinsic Motivation’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (1971), p. 114.
10. Quoted in Karen McCally, ‘Self-Determined’, Rochester Review (July–August 2010).
11. Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini, ‘A Fine is a Price’, Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 29, Issue 1 (2000).
12. Samuel Bowles and Sandra Polanía Reyes, ‘Economic Incentives and Social Preferences: A Preference-Based Lucas Critique of Public Policy’, University of Massachusetts Amherst Working Papers (2009).
13. Amit Katwala, ‘Dan Ariely: Bonuses boost activity, not quality’, Wired (February 2010).
14. Perceptions Matter: The Common Cause UK Values Survey, Common Cause Foundation (2016).
15. Milton Friedman, ‘The Methodology of Positive Economics’, in Essays in Positive Economics (Chicago, 1966).
1
6. Sanford E. DeVoe and Jeffrey Pfeffer, ‘The Stingy Hour: How Accounting for Time Affects Volunteering’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 36, Issue 4 (2010).
17. Steve Crabtee, ‘Worldwide, 13% of Employees Are Engaged at Work’, Gallup (8 October 2013).
18. Wiljan van den Berge and Bas ter Weel, Baanpolarisatie in Nederland. CPB Policy Brief, Statistics Netherlands (2015), p. 14.
19. Quoted in Enzo van Steenbergen and Jeroen Wester, ‘Hogepriester van de kleinschalige zorg’, NRC Handelsblad (12 March 2016). Some competitors have criticised the fact that Buurtzorg shifts patients with severe problems onto other care suppliers, but there’s no evidence to back this up. On the contrary, KPMG consultant David Ikkersheim’s research revealed that Buurtzorg was better and cheaper even after correcting for care load. See David Ikkersheim, ‘Buurtzorg: hoe zat het ook alweer?,’ Skipr (9 May 2016).
20. Quoted in Stevo Akkerman, ‘Betere zorg zonder strategische fratsen’, Trouw (1 March 2016).
21. Quoted in The Corporate Rebels, ‘FAVI. How Zobrist Broke Down Favi’s Command-And-Control Structures’, corporate-rebels.com (4 January 2017).
22. Patrick Gilbert, Nathalie Raulet Crozet and Anne-Charlotte Teglborg, ‘Work Organisation and Innovation–Case Study: FAVI, France’, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (2013).
14 Homo ludens
1. Stephen Moss, Natural Childhood Report (National Trust), p. 5.
2. John Bingham, ‘British Children among Most Housebound in World’, Daily Telegraph (22 March 2016).
3. S. L. Hofferth and J. F. Sandberg, ‘Changes in American Children’s Time, 1981–1997’, in S. L. Hofferth and J. Owens (eds), Children at the Millennium: Where Have We Come from? Where Are We Going? (Stamford, 2001).
4. Peter Gray, ‘The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents’, American Journal of Play, Vol. 23, Issue 4 (2011), p. 450.
5. Jantje Beton/Kantar Public (TNS NIPO), Buitenspelen Onderzoek 2018, jantjebeton.nl (17 April 2018)
6. Frank Huiskamp, ‘Rapport: Nederlandse leerlingen zijn niet gemotiveerd’, NRC Handelsblad (16 April 2014).
7. Gezinsrapport. Een portret van het gezinsleven in Nederland, Netherlands Institute for Social Research (The Hague, 2011).
8. Rebecca Rosen, ‘America’s Workers: Stressed Out, Overwhelmed, Totally Exhausted’, The Atlantic (27 March 2014).
9. Jessica Lahey, ‘Why Kids Care More About Achievement Than Helping Others’, The Atlantic (25 June 2014).
10. See, for example, C. Page Moreau and Marit Gundersen Engeset, ‘The Downstream Consequences of Problem-Solving Mindsets: How Playing with LEGO Influences Creativity’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 53, Issue 1 (2016).
11. Peter Gray, ‘The Play Deficit’, Aeon (18 September 2013).
12. How to Tame a Fox (And Build a Dog) (2017), p. 73.
13. Sarah Zielinski, ‘Five Surprising Animals That Play’, ScienceNews (20 February 2015).
14. Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens. Proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur (1938).
15. Peter Gray, ‘Play as a Foundation for Hunter Gatherer Social Existence’, American Journal of Play (Spring 2009).
16. Jared Diamond, The World Until Yesterday. What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies? (London, 2013), p. 204.
17. Ibid., p. 194.
18. Quoted in J. Mulhern, A History of Education, a Social Interpretation (New York, 1959), p. 383.
19. James C. Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism. Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity and Meaningful Work and Play (Princeton, 2012), pp. 54–5.
20. The seminal work on this process is Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870–1914 (Stanford, 1976).
21. Howard P. Chudacoff, Children at Play. An American History (New York, 2008).
22. Peter Gray, ‘The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents’ (2011).
23. Quoted in Robert Dighton, ‘The Context and Background of the First Adventure Playground’, adventureplay.org.uk
24. Quoted in Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action (London, 1996), p. 89.
25. Quoted in Arvid Bengtsson, Adventure Playgrounds, Crosby Lockwood (1972), pp. 20–21.
26. Quoted in Penny Wilson, ‘children are more complicated than kettles. the life and work of Lady Allen of Hurtwood’, theinternationale.com (2013).
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Mariana Brussoni et al., ‘What is the Relationship between Risky Outdoor Play and Health in Children? A Systematic Review’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 12, Issue 6 (8 June 2015).
30. Quoted in Rebecca Mead, ‘State of Play’, The New Yorker (5 July 2010).
31. Erving Goffman, ‘On the Characteristics of Total Institutions’ (1957).
32. Robin Bonifas, Bullying Among Older Adults. How to Recognize and Address an Unseen Epidemic (Baltimore, 2016).
33. Matt Sedensky, ‘A surprising bullying battleground: Senior centers’, Associated Press (13 May 2018).
34. Randall Collins, Violence. A Micro-sociological Theory (Princeton, 2008), p. 166.
35. Take Hogwarts, the school of Harry Potter fame. In J. K. Rowling’s captivating fantasy world it’s a magical place, but in reality I suspect it would be hell for many children. Kids are grouped by age (in classes) and by personality (in houses, e.g. Gryffindor and Slytherin). Authority figures encourage competition with a complex point system. If you want to leave, your only options are Christmas and summer break. Educationalists agree that Hogwarts is a recipe for a bullying culture.
36. Don’t get me wrong, there are basic skills, like reading and writing, that people living in modern society can’t do without. And there are kids with less aptitude to learn these skills. In such cases, expert instruction by a trained teacher is essential.
37. Robert Dur and Max van Lent, ‘Socially Useless Jobs’, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper (2 May 2018).
38. David Graeber, ‘On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant’, Strike! Magazine (August 2013).
39. Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society (New York, 1971).
40. Peter Gray, Free to Learn. Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (New York, 2013).
41. Quoted in Lois Holzman, ‘What’s the Opposite of Play?’, Psychology Today (5 April 2016).
42. ‘”Depression: Let’s Talk” Says WHO, As Depression Tops List of Causes of Ill Health’, World Health Organization (30 March 2017).
43. Peter Gray, ‘Self-Directed Education–Unschooling and Democratic Schooling’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (April 2017).
15 This Is What Democracy Looks Like
1. Municipalities in Venezuela are a little like counties in some US states. But in Venezuela they’re also where local government operates and mayors are elected.
2. Gabriel Hetland, ‘Emergent Socialist Hegemony in Bolivarian Venezuela: The Role of the Party’, in Susan J. Spronk and Jeffery R. Webber, Crisis and Contradiction: Marxist Perspectives on Latin America in the Global Political Economy (Leiden, 2015), p. 131.
3. Gabriel Hetland, ‘How to Change the World: Institutions and Movements Both Matter’, Berkeley Journal of Sociology (3 November 2014).
4. For a cogent account, see Gabriel Hetland, ‘Grassroots Democracy in Venezuela’, The Nation (30 January 2012).
5. Quoted in ibid.
6. Dmytro Khutkyy, ‘Participatory budgeting: An empowering democratic institution’, Eurozine (31 October 2017).
7. Brazil: Toward a More Inclusive and Effective Participatory Budget in Porto Alegre (World Bank, 2008), p. 2.
8. Quoted in Martin Calisto Friant, ‘Sustainability From Below: Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre’, First Ecuadorian Congress of Urban Studies (November 2017), p. 13.
9. Paolo Spada, ‘The Economic and Political Effects of
Participatory Budgeting’, Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (2009).
10. Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser, ‘Trust’, OurWorldInData.org (2018).
11. For a critique of this thesis, see Omar Encarnación, The Myth of Civil Society. Social Capital and Democratic Consolidation in Spain and Brazil (Basingstoke, 2003).
12. Quoted in ‘Porto Alegre’s Budget Of, By, and For the People’, Yes! Magazine (31 December 2002).
13. Ginia Bellafante, ‘Participatory Budgeting Opens Up Voting to the Disenfranchised and Denied’, New York Times (17 April 2015).
14. Mona Serageldin et al., ‘Assessment of Participatory Budgeting in Brazil’, Harvard University Center for Urban Development Studies (2005), p. 4.
15. Gianpaolo Baiocchi, ‘Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment in Deliberative Democratic Theory’, in Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright (eds), Deepening Democracy. Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance (New York, 2001), p. 64.
16. Alana Semuels, ‘The City That Gave Its Residents $3 Million’, The Atlantic (6 November 2014).
17. Baiocchi, ‘Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment in Deliberative Democratic Theory’.
18. Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Ernesto Ganuza, ‘Participatory Budgeting as if Emancipation Mattered’, Politics & Society, Vol. 42, Issue 1 (2014), p. 45.
19. George Monbiot, Out of the Wreckage. A New Politics for an Age of Crisis (London, 2017), p. 130.
20. Anne Pordes Bowers and Laura Bunt, ‘Your Local Budget. Unlocking the Potential of Participatory Budgeting’, Nesta (2010).
21. Gianpaolo Baiocchi, ‘Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment and Deliberative Democratic Theory’, Politics & Society, Vol. 29, Issue 1 (2001), p. 58.
22. World Bank researchers also concluded the rapid advances owed everything to participatory budgeting. The share of the city budget allocated to healthcare and education increased from 13 per cent in 1985 to 40 per cent in 1996. See Serageldin et al., ‘Assessment of Participatory Budgeting in Brazil’.