Humans are social creatures?

We simply are not designed, either physically or psychologically, to live as solitary creatures.

“Within societies all across the planet, be they small nomadic groups of kin wandering through the grasslands or millions of unrelated individuals living in a metropolis, whether modern or prehistoric, co-operation is the glue that binds us together.

.... without co-operation a society, almost by definition, is bound to crumble.”
From the book “Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees” by Lee Alan Dugatkin

But all societies have had, and still have, “cheaters”.

Aristotle took a harsh view on cheaters.  He said,

“Anyone who either cannot lead the common life, or is so self-sufficient as not to need to and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.”

Open any newspaper, watch the news on television or listen to it on the radio and the news is dominated by beastly cheating behaviour. Perhaps they are beasts masquerading as gods, endowed with power over all those who are powerless – from the President of the United States to an abusive bully who terrorises women and children.

A challenge facing all who see themselves as leaders (parents, teachers, politicians, policemen and woman, preachers – and many others) is to re-establish co-operation as a more desirable, noble and effective behaviour than competition.

And another challenge is to reduce the impact of cheaters, who appear to obtain more resources than co-operators are due.