Well, as I tried to imply in my response about transitivity, reciprocity is 
*merely* a specific type of a more general thing. And though I doubt 
reciprocity can generate gratitude and selflessness, that general thing might.

That generalized reciprocity is implied in this article:

The miracle of the commons
https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth

"The meeting, which lasted several hours, was disrupted by procedural 
inefficiencies, lively sideline arguments and, at one point, an accusation of 
petty corruption. But as the sun sank and the meeting came to a ragged end, I 
realised with surprise that I was exhilarated. During an exceptionally 
difficult year, these conservancy members had taken the trouble to travel to 
the meeting, consider the long-term future of other species, and recommit 
themselves to ensuring it."

The answer to your question lies in that *exhilaration*. I've had arguments 
with Dave, Jon, Nick, and EricC about bureaucracy and our Red-Light tendency to 
only notice badness. What's important is the embeddedness versus the 
abstraction. Reduction to money *abstracts* away participation, those 
connections replete in the societies Dave talks about. And that goes for 
defectors as well. It's the multi-dimensional embeddedness that makes it work, 
whether "it" is shame/shunning or gratitude/exhilaration.

So, how can we walk that tightrope between the efficacy/efficiency provided by 
*abstracting* tools like money versus the emotional good vibes of deep 
participation?


On 5/11/21 9:29 AM, Russ Abbott wrote:
> Yet, even in a utopian society of people who all embodied and practiced the 
> principlesof balanced reciprocity, it would /still /be a challenge to 
> allocate goods, resources, and human effort in a way that satisfies everyone. 
> /
> /
> /It's unlikely that everyone would agree even with good-faith decisions made 
> by davew's ideal people about what balances what.//  How would such 
> disagreements be resolved?/
> /
> /
> It seems that the only solution might be to forgo even balanced reciprocity 
> and build a society of people who appreciate and are satisfied with whatever 
> they get. This would be a world based on gratitude and selflessness rather 
> than reciprocity. 

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