CO-OPERATION
'Co-operation' means, literally, 'working
together', and it has always been a feature not only of human life, but also of
the animal, and to some extent the insect world. Anyone who examines an anthill
will notice that the different kinds of ants have different functions and work together to serve the
queen-ant, just as bees co-operate to serve the queen-bee. Birds unconsciously
co-operate with each other, and, can be taught to co-operate with man for many
purposes. Wolves and jackals hunt in packs, dogs can be trained to control
sheep and to act as guards, and to perform tricks on the stage or at the
circus. The co-operation of farm animals like horses is essential to primitive
agriculture.
But the value of co-operation is most evident
in the sphere of human relations, almost every aspect of man's life being
dependent upon it. In any team game, all the players depend on one another, and
in a game of football, the forwards cannot score goals, unless their wings and
halves feed them passes.
The 'team spirit', is valuable in many
human activities, and is perhaps most marked in family life, in which every
member should be prepared to receive help from and give it to the others.
Unless, parents co-operated with their children, a good upbringing and
opportunities of higher education, leading to good jobs would be non-existent.
Unless, children co-operated with their parents, many of the latter in their
old age would suffer from poverty and neglect. And all members co-operate to
preserve the good reputation of their family, by avoiding actions which would
bring disgrace upon it.
'Keep off the grass'. 'Do not throw
litter'. Such notices, seen in our parks and public places invite the
co-operation of the general public in maintaining the beauty of our cities and
the countryside. It is a great pity that they are so often ignored.
Rather more important is the need for the
co-operation of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians in keeping injury and death
off the roads. There is a clear highway code which, if observed by everybody,
would virtually eliminate traffic accidents, but the mounting toll exacted by
the roads in nearly every country is ample testimony to the need for much
greater co-operation in this sphere of living.
This somber need suggests another crucially
important example of co-operation -- that which is require between a doctor and
his patient. It is quite useless for a sick man to expect a doctor to cure him,
unless he obeys instructions with regard to treatment and also actively tries
to help himself to get better. Doctors can do nothing for patients who refuse
to co-operate, anymore than teachers can for students who are too lazy to learn
or who refuse to do so. However good the teacher is it is the student who has
to pass the examination. However skilled the surgeon, he will fail, if the
theater-sister does not hand him the right instrument at the right moment, or
if the nurse has failed to sterilize them beforehand.
Co-operation is not only a feature of
agricultural methods but also, applies to agricultural; organization.
'Co-operatives' exist where land is held communally, and all resources of
machinery and manual labor are pooled. It is a matter of argument whether this
is a fairer means than that of private enterprise, or distributing the rewards
of labor, but it often makes for efficiently in countries, where vast tracts of
lands are given over the production of cereals.
Modern industry would be impossible without
a high degree of the most subtle co-operation. The manufacture of a motor-car
may depend on a thousand separate processes, each of which is essential and
which must be timed, even in automated plants, to ensure the smooth delivery of
the finished product at the end of the assembly line.
In modern warfare, success depends entirely
on co-operation between army, navy and air force, and also on the co-operation
of allied countries; sometimes on that between civilians and the military, as
in the 'underground movement' of war time Europe. And in peace time, all
countries request the co-operation of the public with the police forces.
Government and people, capital and labor,
parents and children; must co-operate in the hour of need. In the worst sense,
co-operation becomes conspiracy; in the best, unselfishness.
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