Worthless Refuse

There seems to be no cooperation

Without the element of punishment.

“Punishment acts like a magnetic field

That encourages alignment of spins”

And “a phase transition occurs in which

Cooperation then spreads like wildfire.”

Why am I not surprised? Exhortations

To behave, to be cooperative

And to seek cooperation in all—

To see cooperation in all kinds

Of lovely and exquisite living things

And never to notice the murderous—

Always come with a sidecar of shaming.

Fail to praise cooperation enough,

Surely something is defective in you.

Perhaps you are a very bad person.

Punishment is competition’s ratchet,

The invention that bumped it up a notch.

Right now, as you read this, if you’re reading,

Cells of you are killing some cells of you

To keep your cooperation going,

To keep you going—and if not you, then

Someone, somewhere is punishing someone

For being a poor cooperator.

We are all cooperators, or we

Would not be. But no congratulations,

Please, no thank you. The price lives pay for life

Need not be celebrated. I refuse.