10 Surprising Facts About Joni Mitchell in Honor of Her Debut Grammys Performance

The Grammys 2024 will attract top stars with the hopes of bringing home the music world’s biggest awards. Among them will be a musician taking to the Grammys stage for the first time in a decades-long career.

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, 80, who received a nomination for Best Folk Album for Joni Mitchell At Newport [Live], a recording of her surprise return to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022, will deliver her debut performance at the Grammys.

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The nine-time Grammy winner will share the stage with Billie Eilish, Billy Joel, Burna Boy, Dua Lipa, Luke Combs, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Travis Scott, and U2. Comedian Trevor Noah will host.

As Mitchell graces the Grammys’ stage, here are 10 surprising facts about her. 

Joni is not her birth name

The singer-songwriter was born Roberta Joan Anderson on Nov. 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, according to her website. After the end of World War II, Mitchell’s family moved to the province of Saskatchewan, where she grew up.

She had polio as a child

Mitchell told Star in 1995 that she contracted polio as a nine-year-old and at the time of the interview was experiencing returning symptoms. Post-polio syndrome impacts between 25 and 40 out of every 100 polio survivors, starting around 15 to 40 years after the first infection, according to the CDC.

Mitchell first got paid to perform at a Canadian coffee house in 1962

The musician’s first paid performance was at The Louis Riel coffee house in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on Oct. 31, 1962. She is quoted as saying that she started making music that same year near Lake Waskesiu in Saskatchewan.

She reunited with a daughter she placed for adoption

Mitchell became pregnant by her college ex-boyfriend and gave birth to a daughter in 1965, she told Vogue. She quickly married folk singer Chuck Mitchell and soon after, has said she felt like she had no choice but to put her daughter up for adoption. The couple moved to the U.S. and later divorced. Mitchell and her daughter reunited in 1997.

Her song “Big Yellow Taxi” was inspired by Hawaii

Mitchell was inspired to write her environmental anthem “Big Yellow Taxi” by a trip to Hawaii. She reportedly told New Musical Express that she looked down from her hotel room balcony, amid picture-perfect palm trees, to see an “ugly, concrete car park on the hotel grounds.” The scene inspired the chorus: “Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?/ They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

She memorialized “Woodstock” in a song but didn’t attend

Mitchell wrote another hit “Woodstock,” inspired by the famous music festival held in the summer of 1969 in New York state. However, she didn’t actually attend the event.

She was scheduled to perform on Sunday that weekend, according to her website, but when her manager saw the traffic jams caused by the event broadcast on TV, he advised her not to go because she might have trouble getting back to New York City for an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show the following day.

Mitchell survived a brain aneurysm

The singer was found unconscious in her home in Los Angeles after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. At first, Mitchell couldn’t walk or talk, she told the Guardian. She also told CBS that she taught herself to play guitar again.

She has said she suffers from Morgellons disease

Mitchell has said in interviews that she suffers from Morgellons disease, a controversial and little-known condition in which sufferers describe itching or crawling sensations on the skin.

Some doctors define the condition as a delusion and prescribe psychiatry. Studies on the cause vary: A 2012 CDC study found no infectious agent, while a 2018 peer-reviewed investigation reported the condition is characterized by the “presence of multicolored filaments that lie under, are embedded in, or project from skin” and “results from a physiological response to the presence of an infectious agent.”

She didn’t perform a full-length concert for two decades

Mitchell didn’t perform a full-length concert from 2000 to 2022, when she appeared in a surprise performance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island with singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, who is expected to perform again with Mitchell at the Grammys. The last time Mitchell had performed at the festival was in 1969.

Mitchell has already received the Grammys highest honor

The celebrated singer has received a slew of awards during her career, including being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. And she already received the Grammys’ top honor in 2002—a lifetime achievement award for performers who during their lifetimes make creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording.

source https://time.com/6658304/joni-mitchell-grammys-debut-surprising-facts/

Unpacking the Facebook Tragedy as it Turns 20

Which of two historic developments this past week ought most symbolize the importance of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg as his company, Meta, today marks exactly 20 years of existence? Should it be the CEO’s humiliation on Wednesday at the hands of American senators, who told him he “had blood on his hands” and prompted him to turn and contritely address the relatives of young people whose tragic deaths, those relatives believe, were the result of using his company’s products? Or should it be what happened Thursday, when Meta announced vast corporate earnings and its stock the next day soared, adding $197 billion to its overall valuation—more in one day than had any company, ever?

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The answer, of course, is both. The unprecedented journey of this society-altering corporate behemoth continues in ways that are almost as hard to comprehend and digest as the generative artificial intelligence technology it is racing to deploy. This company’s genuine financial and business success is, at the same time, a tragedy of world-historical proportions.

That’s because Facebook and its parent company Meta have truly harmed the world. That it has also been uniquely profitable in the course of doing that is not a coincidence. The willful omission of sufficient guardrails makes everything on Meta’s services go faster, including profit. The company this week announced a $50 billion share buyback alongside huge quarterly earnings. It even launched a shareholder dividend, unusual for a still fast-growing company. Zuckerberg himself, by far the largest stockholder, is set to earn around $700 million a year from that dividend.

I have had a unique perspective on this saga because I was the first journalist to seriously engage with the company’s story, starting in September 2006 when it had a mere 9 million users. (As of the end of 2023, Meta’s various services had a total of 3.98 billion users. The number it directly affects will surpass half the planet’s population in the very near future.) After meeting Zuckerberg for lunch back then in midtown Manhattan, I wrote an article for Fortune entitled “Why Facebook Matters,” which impressed the then 22-year-old Zuckerberg and led, eventually, to a 2010 book chronicling the company’s already-remarkable story, The Facebook Effect.

So I’ve watched carefully as Zuckerberg evolved from an ambitious and generally decent young man into someone I view as a cold-blooded and amoral schemer whose successes are the envy of his fellow capitalists. This 20-year chronicle is entirely about him. He is not just a talented visionary and business leader. Because he has had total control of his globe-spanning enterprise and has led it without sufficient concern for its effects on the world, his culpability for those effects is uniquely large.

In the last day or so I’ve read several judicious and relatively neutral essays in the business press marking Facebook’s 20th anniversary. But they just didn’t capture the sheer oddity and awfulness of the company’s story. It’s critical people not underestimate the awful part.

I was deeply struck by how the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken analyzed what’s going wrong with the world in a conversation with Tom Friedman of The New York Times a few weeks ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “The biggest poison that we face around the world internally in our societies and externally in our relations with others,” Blinken said, “is dehumanization—the inability to see the humanity in the other.” He was talking about the tragedy of Israel and Gaza as well as Ukraine and even U.S.-China relations. But he could as easily have been talking about the dynamic in the cafeteria of any high school on the planet, or among the alumni of Zuckerberg’s alma mater Harvard, for that matter. In my opinion, Zuckerberg played a major part in worsening that shift towards hatred, intolerance, and the attempted cancellation of those we don’t agree with.

It’s not that Zuckerberg wants the world to be fractured. It’s more that he didn’t realize it mattered until it was too late, more or less around the time Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. He won with the help, in part, of disingenuous Facebook ads paid in rubles from Russia and strategically targeted at voters in critical swing counties in Wisconsin and Michigan. By then, though, Zuckerberg was the richest person his age in history. It seems to me he became more concerned with maintaining that status than doing what would be necessary to reduce the polarizing and dehumanizing effects of his company’s systems.

Of course, there are also innumerable good and even great social and political impacts of these systems. This is the most popular media in the world because people enjoy using these services. It’s just another complication when assessing the macro impact of this company. But we don’t prevent someone from going to jail for murder just because they volunteer at a homeless shelter.

I spend a lot of time asking myself why Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have contributed so horribly to the rise of autocrats and to the epidemic of teen suicide and self-harm, just to mention two especially tragic effects. In part, it’s because this company seemingly built its systems from the beginning with far more concern about their ability to generate clicks and attention than about governance mechanisms that might mitigate their harmful impacts. For example, in 2008, the company introduced systems to enable its users in countries around the world to themselves translate Facebook’s English into their local languages, which people everywhere promptly did. Yet Facebook had no employees who spoke most of those languages or who were assigned to ensure their speakers were not harming each other. That remains the case, to this day, in many languages. In Myanmar, an official U.N. inquiry concluded that Facebook disinformation and harassment contributed to genocide.

The harms also continue because, despite the umbrage of the senators and their peers in numerous other countries, governments and regulators have notoriously failed to sufficiently assess and restrain this company and other social media giants. The European Union is beginning to establish laws that can be models for other jurisdictions, but it’s too little too late.

But there’s another way to understand why Facebook and so many other social media companies have such a pernicious socio-cultural effect. It’s because these systems were not designed with a sufficient appreciation for the toxic impact of human ego and emotion.

Fifteen or 20 years ago, I wrote a regular email column for Fortune. I occasionally tackled unpopular topics, like outsourcing American manufacturing, which I suggested might not always be so bad. In reply, I got some scathingly critical emails from readers, calling me terrible names. Sometimes I would email them back, saying I was sorry they felt that way and adding a bit of further explanation. Often, probably more often than not, I would then receive a far less hyperbolic note from the reader, thanking me for my note. But such an exchange is far less likely on social media. That’s because much of the  interaction happens in public. And in public, people have a reputation to maintain. When you speak in front of an audience, as one does on Facebook or Instagram, you want to impress your friends and those you hope are your admirers. We play to our audience. Concessions and efforts to find concord are not what we expect. And as Blinken notes, we too often demonize the other, and polarization worsens.

So happy birthday, Meta. Not. Your shareholders may be celebrating, but the rest of us should not be naive. Much of your impact on our world is not happy.

source https://time.com/6656392/facebook-20th-anniversary-mark-zuckerberg-meta-legacy/

‘Houthi Attacks Must Stop’ Says U.K. Foreign Secretary After Latest Joint Strikes With U.S.

The U.K.’s top foreign official has said “the Houthi attacks must stop” after the U.K. and U.S. joined forces for the third time on Saturday to carry out strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have initiated a series of attacks in the Red Sea amid the Israel-Hamas war. 

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“We have issued repeated warnings to the Houthis,” foreign secretary David Cameron said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. “Their reckless actions are putting innocent lives at risk, threatening the freedom of navigation and destabilizing the region. The Houthi attacks must stop.” 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak posted on X that the Royal Air Force “successfully took out specific Houthi military targets in Yemen, further degrading the Houthis’ capabilities. Recent attacks on U.K. and international vessels are unacceptable. It’s our duty to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom.”

U.K. Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps commented on X that the Houthis’ attacks are “illegal and unacceptable and it is our duty to protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation,” and called the third wave of strikes “proportionate and targeted,” saying the U.S. and U.K. acted in “self-defense and in accordance with international law.” 

“This is not an escalation,” he said in the statement. “We have already successfully targeted launchers and storage sites involved in Houthi attacks, and I am confident that our latest strikes have further degraded the Houthis’ capabilities.” 

Ahead of the third round of joint strikes from the U.K. and U.S., Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani, in a statement on X, condemned military attacks on Yemen. He also criticized the U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria, which were in response to a fatal drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan. He said such strikes violate the sovereignty of the countries and would lead to “no result other than the escalation of tensions and instability in the region.” 

In a follow-up post on Sunday, Kanaani condemned the most recent strikes from the U.S. and U.K. against Yemen, calling them a worrying threat to international peace and security.

The Houthis were undeterred by the latest military action, instead vowing to respond. Mohammed Al-Bukhaiti, a spokesman for the group, which is also called Ansar Allah, said on X: “The American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation.” 

The Iran-supported militant group––one side in Yemen’s yearslong civil war––began launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels it says are linked to Israel in solidarity with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, leading to the conflict in Gaza. The attacks have crippled global shipping, leading some companies to pause operating in the Red Sea and take longer, more expensive routes. 

The barrage triggered a joint military response from the U.S. and U.K. on Jan. 11 and Jan. 22, while the U.S. has carried out additional smaller attacks. 

President Joe Biden acknowledged in mid-January that the attacks were not yet working to stop the Houthis, but would continue. Experts questioned to TIME whether the attacks would deter the Houthis or could backfire if world powers underestimate the Yemeni group’s military might, while another observer said the Western superpowers’ attacks were instigating further responses that continue to destabilize shipping. 

Al-Bukhaiti said on X that the latest bombing wouldn’t change the group’s position and its military actions against Israel would continue until “the crimes of genocide in Gaza are stopped and the siege on its residents is lifted, no matter the sacrifices it costs us.” 

Israel is currently fighting accusations from South Africa in the International Court of Justice that it is committing genocide in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 27,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The court ruled preliminarily in January that “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention,” and called on Israel to take steps to mitigate such acts, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. An Israeli government spokesperson had denied the accusations as “spurious and specious charges.” 

As tensions escalate, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to travel again to the Middle East on Sunday. 

source https://time.com/6645344/uk-us-strikes-yemen-houthis-david-cameron-warning/

House Republicans Announce Bill That Provides More Military Aid to Israel But Leaves Out Ukraine

WASHINGTON — House Republicans will move forward with a $17.6 billion package that provides military aid to Israel and replenish U.S. weapons, but leaves out more help for Ukraine, underscoring the challenges facing supporters of a comprehensive national security package that would also include billions of dollars for immigration enforcement.

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The move gives Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans the chance to show support for Israel even though there is little chance the Senate will go along. Meanwhile, text of a broader Senate compromise is expected to be released this weekend and a key test vote on that package will be held during the week.

Johnson said that Senate leadership is aware that by failing to include the House in their negotiations, they have eliminated the ability for swift consideration of any legislation.

“As I have said consistently for the past three months, the House will have to work its will on these issues and our priorities will need to be addressed,” Johnson said in a letter to colleagues.

The House has already approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package in November for Israel that the Senate declined to take up. Republicans also insisted it be paid for with cuts elsewhere. The bill targeted the Internal Revenue Service for cuts, though the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said doing so would end up costing the federal government a net $12.5 billion because of lost revenue from tax collections.

The tactic of including IRS cuts also turned it into a more partisan, 226-196 vote. Johnson said in his letter to colleagues that removing the offsets should allow for swift passage of the Israel aid.

“During debate in the House and in numerous subsequent statements, Democrats made clear that their primary objection to the original House bill was with its offsets,” Johnson said. “The Senate will no longer have excuses, however misguided, against swift passage of this critical support for our ally.”

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., released the text of the military assistance bill for Israel. It would provide $4 billion to replenish missile defense systems and $1.2 billion to counter short-range rockets and mortar threats. There’s also funding for the procurement of advanced weapons system and to enhance the production of artillery and other munitions.

To ensure the support does not compromise U.S. readiness, it includes $4.4 billion to replenish U.S. stocks of weapons provided to Israel. There’s also $3.3 billion for current U.S. military operations in the region.

source https://time.com/6645365/house-republicans-bill-military-aid-israel-not-ukraine/

TIME and Ally Financial Name 2024 Dealer of the Year

Rita Case, President, CEO, and Dealer Principal at Rick Case Honda in Davie, Florida, Wins 55th Annual Award at 107th National Automotive Dealers Association Show

(Las Vegas, NV, February 3, 2024) – Today, Rita Case, president, CEO, and dealer principal at Rick Case Honda in Davie, Florida, was announced as the 2024 TIME Dealer of the Year at the 107th National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Show. Now in its 55th year, the TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the auto industry’s most respected and highly coveted honors. 

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Case, also CEO of the Rick Case Auto Group, was selected for her outstanding achievements in the auto industry and her unwavering commitment to making a positive impact in her community. Case and her auto group, the largest woman-owned-and-operated dealership group in the country, has pioneered innovative sales initiatives and founded the Fort Lauderdale International Auto Show, which has elevated the profile of dealers in the region and raised money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County since 1990.  She has collected bicycles for children in need during the holidays for the past 41 years and is the founding sponsor of 77 Habitat for Humanity homes in South Florida.

Jessica Sibley, CEO of TIME, and Doug Timmerman, Ally Interim CEO and President of Dealer Financial Services, announced Case as the winner at a ceremony that honored all 49 nominees. Case was chosen from a field of more than 16,000 franchised dealers across the country.

“At TIME, we are proud to uphold the decades-long tradition of honoring automotive dealers who make a positive impact and show dedication to their communities through our TIME Dealer of the Year award,” said TIME CEO Jessica Sibley. “We are excited to keep this tradition of applauding these community contributions together with our partners at Ally.” 

 “Rita epitomizes the qualities the TIME Dealer of the Year Award was designed to recognize – a relentless determination to make this incredible industry even better and to support causes that strengthen her community,” Timmerman said. “She paved the way for women in the dealership business and found innovative ways to sell cars, while also working to provide those in need everything from housing and scholarships to healthcare and education.” 

The TIME Dealer of the Year winner and finalists are chosen by a panel from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan. The panel selects finalists from each of the four NADA regions, and, ultimately, a national winner from those finalists. 

In addition to Case, the 2024 TIME Dealer of the Year finalists include:

• H. Lehman Franklin, Franklin Toyota, Statesboro, GA
• Thomas Murphy, Falmouth Toyota, Bourne, MA
• Brian O’Meara, O’Meara Ford Center Inc., Northglenn, CO
• Daniel Wilson, Corwin Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, Fargo, ND

As the exclusive sponsor of the TIME Dealer of the Year program for the 13th year in a row, Ally will provide grants to eligible 501c3 charitable organizations selected by the nominees, finalists, and winner. For more than a decade, Ally has made donations in connection with the program, totaling nearly $1 million. This year, Ally will give $10,000 to the charity of Case’s choice and $5,000 to each of the nonprofit organizations selected by the four finalists. In recognition of their achievements, Ally also will give $1,000 to the charities of choice for each of the 49 nominees. 

For more information on the nominees, finalists, and winner, please visit:  https://www.ally.com/go/allydealerheroes/nominees.

About TIME 

TIME is the 100-year-old global media brand that reaches a combined audience of over 120 million around the world through its iconic magazine and digital platforms. With unparalleled access to the world’s most influential people, the trust of consumers and partners globally, and an unrivaled power to convene, TIME’s mission is to tell the essential stories of the people and ideas that shape and improve the world. Today, TIME also includes the Emmy Award®-winning film and television division TIME Studios; a significantly expanded live events business built on the powerful TIME100 and Person of the Year franchises and custom experiences; TIME for Kids, which provides trusted news with a focus on news literacy for kids and valuable resources for teachers and families; the award-winning branded content studio Red Border Studios; an industry-leading web3 division; the website-building platform TIME Sites; the sustainability and climate action division TIME CO2; the new e-commerce and content platform TIME Stamped, and more.

About Ally Financial Inc.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a financial services company with the nation’s largest all-digital bank and an industry-leading auto financing business, driven by a mission to “Do It Right” and be a relentless ally for customers and communities. The company serves more than 11 million customers through a full range of online banking services (including deposits, mortgage, point-of-sale personal lending, and credit card products) and securities brokerage and investment advisory services. The company also includes a robust corporate finance business that offers capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies, as well as auto financing and insurance offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.ally.com and follow @allyfinancial.

For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures. 

For further images and news on Ally, please visit http://media.ally.com.

About the NADA Show 

The annual NADA Show brings together more than 20,000 franchised dealers and their employees, industry leaders, manufacturers and exhibitors to learn about the latest auto industry tools, trends, products and technologies.

source https://time.com/6632445/time-and-ally-financial-name-2024-dealer-of-the-year/

Target Pulls Item Highlighting Civil Rights Icons After TikTok Video Points Out Errors

Target has stopped selling a children’s educational product celebrating Civil Rights history after a TikTok video, which has so far been viewed over 960,000 times, pointed out that some historical leaders were mislabeled.

In the TikTok posted earlier this week, U.S. history high school teacher Tierra Espy, who shares content under the handle @issatete, said she purchased the magnetic learning activity to give to her kids for Black History Month in the U.S. in February, but immediately noticed discrepancies.

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She pointed out the names of three Civil Rights icons—Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington—did not match cartoon depictions of their photos that she found online. 

“I don’t know who’s in charge of Target, but these need to be pulled off the shelves, like, immediately,” she said. “I get it, mistakes happen, but this needs to be corrected ASAP.” 

@issatete

Idk who needs to correct it but it needs to be pulled off the shelves nontheless. Any person could have missed the mistake but it just takes one person to point it out and ask for corrections #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth #blacktiktok

♬ original sound – Issa tete

In an email on Saturday, Target told TIME: “We will no longer be selling this product in stores or online. We’ve also ensured the product’s publisher is aware of the errors.”

The front cover of the magnetic learning activity in the video bears the logo of Bendon, a children’s publishing company.

In a follow-up TikTok video, posted after reports Target had pulled the product, Espy said that as a U.S. history teacher, she had to call out the errors. “I wasn’t going to let it slide for my 200 students or my two babies, who I’m responsible for teaching.”

TIME reached out to Target, the publisher, and Espy for comment.

source https://time.com/6633318/target-pulls-civil-rights-product-errors-tiktok-video/

The Science of Getting Along

All around us seems to be conflict. The Global Conflict Tracker lists 27 conflicts around the world today; a sample of 1,490 leaders polled by the World Economic Forum said the biggest societal risk this year was polarization; and even Taylor Swift has been targeted for fear she’ll endorse President Biden and sway the 2024 election. Why can’t we just all get along?

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Surprisingly, we do. Humans are almost ant-like in the scale and range of our cooperation and conflict of all kinds are less frequent and devastating than they were in the past. We take it for granted but we should be amazed that people from so many diverse places across the globe can live, work, and even commute on crammed trains and planes in peace. A plane full of chimpanzees who didn’t know each other would be a plane full of dead and maimed apes, blood and body parts strewn through the aisles, as primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy reflected in her widely acclaimed book, Mothers and Others.

The mechanisms that sustain cooperation are now well understood. The most ancient of these is “inclusive fitness,” or cooperation among family and small tribes through shared genes. Ongoing cooperation for mutual benefit, or “direct reciprocity,” is the basis of friendships and networks. This mechanism, too, is ancient and found across the animal kingdom. Mutual benefit reaches our extended networks through reputation and shared norms—the basis of cooperation among those who share religion, politics, and other group memberships. This is a uniquely human form of cooperation facilitated by our ability to gossip and keep track of everyone around us, even strangers.

Read More: What I Learned About America by Traveling 150,000 Miles on Greyhound

But there are always risks of conflict, both large and small, breaking out. Fortunately, the science of cooperation reveals what it takes for mere tolerance to become friendship and comity. For them to truly become us.

Here are 3 lessons:

1. Competition helps us discover mutual benefit

Ultimately, cooperation flourishes when people expect to get more by working with many others than by themselves or in a smaller group—a maxim so ubiquitous across all facets of life that I call it the “Law of Cooperation.” That doesn’t mean all groups achieve this optimal scale. When we start a company, form an alliance, or try to make peace with an enemy, we don’t always know in advance the reward, if the other party will do their part, or if they’ll be fair in sharing the reward. Cooperation depends not only on actual rewards, but people’s expectations. So many groups are trapped by historical grievances, false beliefs about the other side, or what can be gained by working together. It is competition that breaks us out of these suboptimal traps.

In the 11th century, most trade was facilitated by known locals or based on trust through family ties. But competition led to experimentation. Groups like the Maghribi Jewish Traders tried creating mechanisms of sharing reputations and informal community enforcement. Their experiment succeeded in expanding cooperation to an extended network of trust and trade beyond family ties to those throughout the Mediterranean, from Spain to Sicily to Egypt and Palestine.

Perceived mutual benefit is why trade between two countries reduces the probability of war. You don’t want to fight with your factory, unless you have another factory. Similarly, the sharing of knowledge empowered cooperation during the Industrial Revolution. Industrialization and tapping into a vast new energy source in the form of fossil fuels led to large factories, the expansion of education to create a workforce for those factories, and educated workers forming coalitions and companies to compete for the spoils.

2. Cooperation undermines cooperation

Corruption and civil conflict are often thought of as a puzzle but they are less puzzling than well functioning institutions and peace. Corruption is often the oldest, most stable form of cooperation—the ties that bind us into families, friends, and networks—relabeled as nepotism and cronyism. My colleagues and I experimentally demonstrated how the possibility of “direct reciprocity”—in effect bribery—undermines well functioning institutions and how cultural exposure to bribery can increase its prevalence. In the West, these can often manifest as lobbyists, special interest groups, and revolving doors. The most effective anti-corruption strategies are those that undermine these cooperation mechanisms—such as banning revolving doors and creating cooling off periods—to undermine alliances and prevent people from cooperating to undermine the system.

In The WEIRDest people in the world, Joseph Henrich argues that the Catholic Church’s banning of cousin marriage and other reforms to European family practices that began in the 4th century undermined European tribes and created the modern nuclear family. This in turn weakened nepotism and set the stage for non-family corporations and more successful liberal democracies in Europe. The values created by that shift, such as individualism, are spreading worldwide through education, urbanization, and jobs that take people away from their families.

3. Perceptions can create reality

The U.S. economy is currently booming, but there is a lag on the rise in consumer sentiment. The perception of a deteriorating standard of living—unsurprising given high interest rates and price increases on a range of goods, from essential items and services to homes—have triggered zero sum perceptions. Our zero-sum psychology leads us to believe that there is not enough for everyone. This in turn causes people to rely more on their immediate networks at the expense of others, increasing political divides. Regardless of reality, even the perception of zero-sum conditions can create that zero-sum reality as people choose not to work with one another. 

Well intentioned attempts to help us get along or redress past injustice can further divide us by reifying subgroups at the expense of a larger group. The ethnic and racial boxes we tick for college, scholarship, and job applications reify categories such as African American, Asian American, Latino, and white. These categories are choices. They mask other possible unifying groups. Does a wealthy non-white child of immigrants, such as former Harvard president Claudine Gay, the daughter of wealthy Haitian immigrants, have more in common with Black Walmart workers who might tick the same box than affluent White colleagues? Is focusing on ancestry and ignoring other forms of privilege the best way to close racial wealth gaps?

Evolutionary theory and experimental evidence reveals that race is not a natural category. We evolved alongside people who looked like us. And social categories we create and reify affect perceptions of who is them and and who is us. When combined with zero-sum perceptions, this is a recipe for polarization and conflict.

The science of cooperation reveals that we can get along, but that it’s easy to slip backwards into conflict. The danger today is that because the scale of cooperation is now in the hundreds of millions, if not billions, the consequences of potential conflict is higher than it’s ever been. By revealing the win-wins through cooperation for mutual benefit, by undermining rather than reifying subgroup differences, and by talking to one another across our divides, we remind ourselves of what we share and what we can achieve by working together.

source https://time.com/6622170/science-cooperation-conflict/