Chapter 6-3 An Imagined Order

P8 Impressive, no doubt, but we mustn't harbour rosy illusions about 'mass cooperation networks' operating in pharaonic Egypt or the Roman Empire. 'Cooperation' sounds very altruistic, but is not always voluntary and seldom egalitarian. Most human cooperation networks have been geared towards oppression and exploitation. The peasants paid for the burgeoning cooperation networks with their precious food surpluses, despairing when the tax collector wiped out an entire year of hard labour with a single stroke of his imperial pen. The famed Roman amphitheatres were often built by slaves so that wealthy and idle Romans could watch other slaves engage in vicious gladiatorial combat. Even prisons and concentration camps are cooperation networks, and can function only because thousands of strangers somehow manage to coordinate their actions.  P10 the Code of Hammurabi & the American Declaration of Independence  Things to Discuss 1 Let us discuss the issue about non-altruistic cooperation. Some cooperation requires sacrifice from people who are positioned as a low ranking like peasants, commoners, women and slaves. Human's cooperation history has evolved but not always in a positive way. Related to the Code of Hammurabi which states different levels of punishment depending to the parties' social ranking, what is your opinion?  2 According to the American Declaration of Independence, all people are equal. But Harari says that the idea that all humans are equal is also a myth. He claims that the principle has no objective validity. Do you agree?