ustxtxb_obs_1994_02_11_50_00021-00000_000.pdf
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A Testimony to Cooperation By Robert Putman David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, offered a simple parable that captures the essential dilemma that confounds rational public-spiritedness: y OUR CORN IS RIPE TODAY; MINE WILL BE SO TOMORROW. TIS PROFIT FOR US BOTH THAT I SHOU’D LABOUR WITH YOU TODAY, AND THAT YOU SHOU’D AID ME TOMORROW. I HAVE NO KINDNESS FOR YOU, AND YOU HAVE AS LITTLE FOR ME. IWILL NOT, THEREFORE, TAKE ANY PAINS UPON YOUR ACCOUNT; AND SHOULD I LABOUR WITH YOU UPON MY OWN ACCOUNT, IN EXPECTATION OF A RETURN, I KNOWI SHOD’ D BE DISAPPOINTED, AND THAT I SHOU’D IN VAIN DEPEND UPON YOUR GRATITUDE. HERE THEN I LEAVE YOU TO LABOUR ALONE; YOU TREAT MEIN THE SAME MANNER. THE SEASONS CHANGE; AND BOTH OF US LOSE OUR HARVESTS FOR WANT OF MUTUAL CONFIDENCE AND SECURITY The above was excerpted from Making Democracy Work by Robert Putman. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21
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