The Role and Nature of Imagined Orders in Mass Cooperation

Key Insight

The Agricultural Revolution's resulting food surpluses and new transportation technologies enabled humans to form large villages, towns, and cities, then kingdoms and commercial networks. However, humans evolved in small bands, lacking biological instincts for mass cooperation among millions of strangers. This gap was filled by 'imagined orders' – shared myths about great gods, motherlands, or joint-stock companies that provided the necessary social links.

These imagined orders enabled astonishing networks of mass cooperation, transforming society. Villages like Jericho (a few hundred individuals around 8500 BC) grew to cities like Çatalhöyük (5,000-10,000 by 7000 BC). By 2250 BC, Sargon the Great forged the Akkadian Empire with over a million subjects and 5,400 soldiers. The Roman Empire, at its zenith, collected taxes from up to 100 million subjects and financed a standing army of 250,000-500,000 soldiers.

However, 'cooperation' in these large networks often meant oppression and exploitation. Peasants funded these systems with their food surpluses, and monumental structures like Roman amphitheatres were built by slaves. Imagined orders, such as Hammurabi's Code (c. 1776 BC) or the American Declaration of Independence (1776 AD), assert universal principles of justice (hierarchy or equality) that enabled millions to cooperate effectively. Yet, these principles have no objective validity outside the 'fertile imagination of Sapiens' and are sustained by continuous efforts, including violence, coercion, and crucially, the genuine belief of large segments of the population and elites.