What is the single most divisive factor in humankind today? What is the wall that separates humans from one another? Is it religion? Is it gender? I would contend no, it is economic status.
People of a different economic status might as well be from another planet, when it comes to real life. Of course, in the blogosphere, nobody knows if you're rich or poor, but in real life, it quickly becomes obvious which economic status you're in. What car you drive, whether you have a car or not, the kind of clothes you wear. It's sickening.
Friday, May 29, 2009
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5 comments:
I disagree, what divides man the most is the thought that we are all individuals and not connected to each other. Sure money and status can be divisive, however it is our ego which uses money and power as a show of the individual that does the damage. When we realize that we are one, then status and power does not divide and in fact can be used as tools to bring us together.
Mark,
Unfortunately, not everyone is as enlightened. Many mere mortals such as I probably fail to see in what way we are all connected. It is a concept which many would probably find difficult to grasp. Might this not just be a platitude that is thrown around to make everyone feel better, but without any practical and real consequence?
Sure, we're connected in the sense that we're living in the same universe, and breathing the same air. We might even have shared some common atoms at some time. But our memories, our life experiences, are largely different, leading us to have many different paradigms of life and what life has in store for us.
On the other hand, you have raised a possible solution for man, and that is to envision that we are one, and hence to be united, and not just care for ourselves. That is a noble vision, and who knows, it might be workable. Just that most of us have probably not caught it yet.
ly, not everyone is as enlightened. Many mere mortals such as I probably fail to see in what way we are all connected. It is a concept which many would probably find difficult to grasp.--
Excellent answer, Temaskian. I toyed with that idea (unity) for a long time and decided that to believe that I needed faith, and anything that needs faith requires mental gymnastics that I am not willing to do.
Also, I am too practical. When something is so hard to understand and the rewards of understanding it are so little, I don't see why I should bother.
Wow, Lorena, I had no idea that 'unity' was also some kind of religious concept that is floating around.
I wonder if that means that Mark is some kind of unitist or something.
It's an enticing concept that may help eradicate division, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense, which is why it may not sell so well, just like my Christian Atheist movement, LOL.
Furthermore, ego is hard to remove and may not be beneficial to remove totally, otherwise we become just an empty shell, an automaton.
This is a good discussion. Have you ever had an experience of connection, be it knowing that a loved one needed you or something had happened even though they were hundreads of miles away. Have you ever passed a stranger on the street, made eye contact and had the feeling that you somehow knew each other or were somehow connected?
If we look at life as this human experience is it, that there is nothing beyond this and that there is no source from which we all derive, then yes I could see how one could possibly thing that we are all individual entities, however if one sets the ego aside and allows there authentic self to be, then it is fairly easy to feel the connections that go beyond this physical form which we now inhabit and which we will exit from when this human experience is complete.
Myself, I find it difficult to explain all of the things that happen in this world if we are not in someway connected, all one, that is all from one source.
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