While the UN and many civil society actors continue to advocate for a more just, cooperative, and compassionate global order, the knowledge needed to build such a world is consistently overlooked, especially by the most powerful nations, whose priorities remain entrenched in rivalry, deterrence, and domination. This neglect now threatens our collective future.
The principles we need are neither abstract nor lost. They exist in everyday human connections, in decades of interdisciplinary research, and, of course, often in fiction. TV series like Station Eleven, Arcadia, The Society, and The Rain explore how people might cooperate and rebuild after a civilizational collapse. These stories strike a chord, pointing to a growing need to understand how we can create something better, more just, and more humane here and now — or if the old systems fall apart.
The single most important condition for such a society to emerge and endure is a fundamental attitude toward community that runs deeper than politics and proves more sustainable than short-term solutions. Relational and emotional awareness must underlie everything.
When we discuss reconstruction, reform, or survival strategies, we must ask the most fundamental question a human being can ask: What truly holds a society together?
There are many technological and economic answers to that question, but they are all secondary. The primary answer, the most decisive one, is not material security or legal frameworks but relational awareness — a deep understanding that we are woven into each other’s lives.
We survived as a species because we cooperated, not because we competed. That’s not new information. Evolutionary biologists, social anthropologists, and neuropsychologists have said it for decades. And yet we continue to live as if the opposite were true, as if independence were the highest form of human achievement. We remain in the “survival of the luckiest” phase, but how many lucky ones will stay after the kind of catastrophic collapse so many now warn us about, unless we radically change course?
There is urgency in realizing that without human connection, we die — literally. Infants who are not seen and held wither. Adults without emotional bonds unravel. A society where we no longer see each other is a society in collapse. When older people die alone and remain undiscovered for weeks, it signals the breakdown of the community. When young people die of overdoses, and no one knows they are suffering, we have already lost our human infrastructure.
Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and philosopher, put it this way: “I need you because I love you.” He reversed the destructive idea that love arises from dependency — “I love you because I need you.” For Fromm, real love is the opposite: a voluntary movement toward another person, a conscious decision to see, to listen, to be present.
This insight applies not just to romantic relationships but also to society. An inclusive culture is not built because we are forced to cooperate, but because we choose to care. Think of local communities organizing “freecycle stations” or neighborhood networks where people share surplus goods, help, and services — not because it’s profitable, but because it feels right. Or cities that house refugees in vacant apartments and provide access to work and language training, not as a burden but as an investment in their shared future.
This is not a utopia. It is the smallest building block we must recover: the will to care. Not because we expect a reward but because we recognize a shared fate. It requires a new ethic of belonging. Schools that teach compassion, conflict resolution, and community, not just competition and performance. A culture that teaches us to say, “I am because we are.” Media that highlight stories of cooperation and kindness, rather than just scandal and rivalry. Institutions that reflect care, not control. Healthcare and social systems that meet people with trust and dignity, not suspicion and bureaucracy.
When Portugal decriminalized drugs and instead invested in low-threshold healthcare and social support, drug-related deaths dropped significantly, and more people sought help. Overall usage remained relatively stable, but the harm was reduced considerably. It shows what happens when a society chooses care over punishment.
The next chapter in human history will not be shaped by technological breakthroughs or economic reforms alone, but by whether we understand this: I need you, not because I am weak, but because I love this world enough to want to share it with you.
This is the first realization, the one that must come before all others. Without it, there can be no successful survival strategy. With it, we reclaim the most solid foundation we’ve ever built — one developed together, a vital piece of knowledge many of our elected leaders and the heads of the world’s most powerful nations seem to have forgotten.
What else are we to believe when it is the logic of an eye for an eye that dominates the conversations between the great powers today?
Featured image © Eldar Einarson
One response to “The Knowledge That Great Powers Ignore, at Everyone’s Expense”
[…] As the great powers continue to prioritize domination over humanity, it becomes more important than ever for as many of us as possible to do the opposite. As I wrote in Strategy for Survival and The Knowledge That Great Powers Ignore at Everyone’s Expense: […]