Know Thy Neighbor?

You have yet to embrace your fellow man. Admit it, you’re still determined to divide the human race into small groups, tiny tribes. You classify and categorize people by where they’re from, what religion they have, nationality, ethnic group, where they went to school, what sports team the support. Male, female, straight, gay, transgendered, rich, poor, smart, stupid, what work they do.  Three million years of evolution, and you still divy people up into small tribes!

The fact is that we can fly around the world in hours, can instantly communicate with almost anyone on the planet, and you’re still mostly unchanged. Oh, sure, you don’t carry a spear out in public, or wear a loin cloth, (at least some of you don’t), but you’re not much changed; you cling to your tribal ways. Us versus them.

We are in all things, a child of our history and genetics, which have indelably marked us for good or ill. We existed in small bands, wandering, hunting, trying to survive. Strangers were likely hostile competitors, to be avoided or killed. Only with the comming of agriculture, and the need for city building, did we need to “co-operate”. Still, we don’t have much love for anyone outside our immediate group.

No one trusts the “others” those unknown and strange. Now, you pretend you know all sorts of people, talking and connecting with people you’ve never met via technology that almost no one understands. Your feeling of connectedness is mostly illusion, whether you admit it or not. People who exist as symbols on a screen have no real meaning or worth.

Do you know who lives next door to you? Two doors down? A block over? They’re strangers, aren’t they? You’ve given up on any real sense of community, for an illusionary one, that is more fantasy than real. You’re still living in a small hut. Being a tribesman. You just aren’t being honest about it, are you? Maybe we all need to reconsider some things?