UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR FOR ARISTOCRATIC NEGOTIATIONS “I cooperate with you on beha

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR FOR ARISTOCRATIC NEGOTIATIONS

“I cooperate with you on behalf of myself, my family and my kin for profit. I cooperate reciprocally to preserve the opportunity for profit, and lower the total cost of making profits through cooperation. But I cooperate with you, your family, and your kin, if and only if it is more rewarding than not cooperating with you, your family and your kin. And my investment in our cooperation, and my contribution to the common good, is in not preying upon you, killing you and your sons, taking your territory, your property, your things, raping and enslaving your wives and daughters, and that of all of your kin. So let us not imagine ourselves as equals. We merely carry on the pretense of equality in order to obtain cooperation at the lowest cost. And let us not suggest that we possess any debt to one another. We do not. For as long as I have the ability to take from you against your will, it is simply a calculation of profit and loss. And if you should attempt to suggest there is a false debt, then you are no longer cooperating but engaging in fraud, and I will, and mine will, prefer not to cooperate, but to prey upon you. If for no other reason than to ensure by example, that no others attempt to create such a fraud, and increase my costs and therefore reduce my returns on cooperation.”