Anthropology of modernity: the path from conflict to cooperation

Abstract

The article «Cooperation over coercion: the importance of unsupervised childhood play for democracy and liberalism» by economist Steven Horwitz is discussed from the point of view of contemporary anthropology. Relying implicitly on a transdisciplinary approach, S. Horwitz analyzed many sources from the field of social sciences that explore the problems of socialization of children and adolescents in modern conditions. He concludes the important role of unsupervised childhood play or free play for the development of successful social interaction skills in the modern world. S. Horwitz convincingly proves that uncontrolled and unstructured children's play spontaneously teaches children social self-regulation, easy ways of resolving conflicts, building partnerships and cooperation with each other. These lessons are essential not only for a prosperous adult life and psychological resilience in the face of uncertainty, but also for maintaining the culture of a democratic society. The game in the broad sense of the word is understood as a free activity of people based on their mutual consent and structured by the rules that the players themselves create. Free play develops the social skills necessary for successful human interactions in the real world. In contrast, supervised play practices impair social interaction skills by teaching children to expect adults to intervene in resolving their disputes or to use external coercion. Meanwhile, it is the ability of subjects to independently develop rules for resolving potential conflicts that underlies how free people create institutional practices that reduce the level of coercion and violence in society. Such daily practices have their origins in children's play, based on the mutual consent of the players, empathy, concern for the feelings of satisfaction with the game of another person and justice.