Fundamental Connectedness, Differences, and Survival
Stephen Beller, PhD
Prosocial Entrepreneur, Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Cognitive Scientist, Software Architect and Model Builder, Knowledge System Inventor, Consultant, Writer, Futurist
This image represents how everyone inhabits our planet is fundamentally connected to everyone and everything else in the Universe.
Conflict often arises when people lose sight of this fundamental (basic, intrinsic) principle of essential oneness and instead focus on our differences. These differences include our perceptions and beliefs, social status and material wealth, group affiliations (e.g., nationality, race, gender, religion), physical appearance, etc.
When we concentrate on our similarities, on the other hand, we realize that many (most) humans love their families, are loyal to their friends, and have respect for their communities. They also desire to express moral character, do for others and learn from them, be respectful, and engage in civil conversations in which compromises are made that consider other people’s wants and needs together with their own.
But when we concentrate on how we’re dissimilar, our thoughts of separateness can lead to judgments of who is more deserving, worthy, and righteous. These judgments are most problematic when people who perceive themselves as superior judge another person’s differences as indicating the individual is inferior, undeserving, unworthy, unrighteous, indecent, or immoral. They may then ridicule, reject, treat with contempt, or physically harm that person.
As a result, they’re unlikely to feel empathy, tend to act without respect for societal norms and civilized rules and disregard the feelings of others. Rageful hatred and destruction of others — including cultural violence and war — due to feelings of superiority, deservingness, and feeling disrespected.
When people are continually told that they have little or no value and don’t matter, it’s easy to convince them that the rules of society are against them. They learn to hate themselves and act in ways that enable others to gain power and control over them.
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These common yet irrational judgments, in turn, can lead to emotions and behaviors ranging from:
If our species is to survive and thrive long-term, and if we are to increase the well-being of humanity, we must do three things:
See https://stevebeller.medium.com/fundamental-connectedness-differences-and-human-survival-f7d51426e270 for the full version of this article.
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9 个月Stephen Beller, PhD our big blue tree :-) https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/leif-leaf-generalrealitymedia-xsugc
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1 年An excellent article Stephen Beller, PhD . We definitely need more connectedness in the whole world with its positivity of bringing people together. For too long now the UK in particular has been fed ‘separateness’, with those in power treating us citizens in just the way you have described.