Guidelines for Promoting Unity
“When you call yourself an Indian, or a Muslim, or a Christian, or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party, or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti
I was born in Brazil and lived there for more than four decades. After leaving Brazil, I lived in Argentina and was just a few months short of becoming an Argentine citizen when I left that country and moved to the United States. I am a Brazilian by birth and, now, an American by choice. I can trace my mother’s ancestors to Portugal and my father’s to Italy. Through different ways, I feel connected with the people of those countries: Portugal with its 10 million inhabitants; Italy with its 58 million; Argentina with its 45 million; Brazil with its 217 million; and the United States with its 335 million inhabitants. If I identify myself as a Portuguese-Italian-Brazilian-Argentine-American, then I am connected with 665 million people in the world. But if I let go of all those affiliations and identify myself simply as a human being, I am connected with all the 8.1 billion humans on our planet.
I am aware that being a descendant of white Europeans has put me in an advantageous position in comparison to others. I am entirely conscious of the privileges and opportunities I have experienced for being a white male. I have it clear that I have never been a member of any oppressed minority and have never experienced what others have experienced and continue to experience. Therefore, I am aware that it’s easier for me than for those who are not in the same privileged situation as I am, to let go of and renounce membership and belonging to any group.
As I express my desires of non-affiliation with any faction, I dream of the day when all of us, including the members of oppressed minorities may be able to proclaim, as I do: “I am a human being. I am not different from others and I don’t see myself as being different from others. I am not this or that, and I don’t accept any classification that divides and separates me from others. Do not classify me because I do not classify myself. Do not separate me because I do not separate myself. Do not put me in any box. I am not one thing. I am everything. And that’s the way I choose to live my life.”
I dream of the day when we will not separate ourselves in any way. We need to elevate our global human consciousness and let go of the ways we separate ourselves because separation breeds animosity and violence. We need to understand that we are members of one big family, the global human family, and that we are all related. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his masterpiece, Letter from Birmingham Jail, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
We need to abandon our different identities, affiliations, and loyalties with all kinds of groups—countries, nations, traditions, religions, tribes, clans, teams, parties, clubs . . . —and develop the feeling that we belong to something larger, something bigger. We need to stop pledging loyalties to factions that include some and exclude many. We need to include everyone and exclude no one. That’s the conscience we need to develop and how we should try to live. And that’s how I try to live. And if my inclusion of others makes some people uncomfortable, those are opportunities for them to question their prejudices and grow. I don’t want to be a member of any exclusive club. I prefer to be excluded based on who I include, than to be included based on who I exclude.
The moment we identify ourselves with one tribe, and vow loyalty to that tribe, we separate ourselves from the whole. The moment we create an Us, we also create a Them. And the efforts we make to separate ourselves and not mingle with others—the efforts we make to avoid miscegenation to keep our tribe pure—create the monsters that will eventually haunt us. Every action we take to isolate ourselves breeds a potential violent reaction. What we believe is protecting us, is what, in reality, is endangering us.
Howard Thurman said, “People, all people, belong to each other. And he who shuts himself away, diminishes himself, and he who shuts others away, destroys himself. . . . Community cannot feed for long on itself; it can only flourish where always the boundaries are giving way to the coming of others from beyond them—unknown and undiscovered brothers.”
I am aware that what follows is a generalization, and although simplistic and limited in scope, it can be helpful to our analysis.
The biggest obstacles for world peace and the creation of a world society where everyone lives harmoniously are the past and current injustices and inequalities. Peace is an offspring of justice. Without justice there cannot be peace.
Those in power—those who historically have benefited and continue to benefit from the ways we have organized ourselves to live on this planet—are either unaware of the privileges they have enjoyed and are enjoying, or although aware, oppose changes that can bring about more equality.
On the other end of the spectrum, those who belong to groups that historically have faced injustices, oppression, and exploitation, continue to heavily identify themselves with such groups and separate themselves from the whole. Demanding justice and equality is completely justified, but the relentless separation and identification with historically subjugated groups keeps separation in place. And the constant separation is, in the final analysis, counterproductive.
Separation is the opposite of unity. It prevents communion. It breeds animosity and creates the Us against Them mindset that produces fear and the justifications for the use of violence.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”
It is a highly complex situation. The violence we see in the world is the result of a less visible violence, the one that subsists within our unjust social structures. “What should we do?” I keep asking this question. “What should we do to live in harmony? How can we escape this trap—this play of suffering that keeps replaying itself generation after generation?” There are no easy answers, for sure, but we need to come up with new alternatives because clearly what we have been doing so far has proven to be unable to engender harmony.
First of all, we all should continue seeking and promoting justice. And I repeat myself: Peace is an offspring of justice. Without justice there can be no peace. So we should seek, promote, and instate societal arrangements that are fair for all.
Then, if you are a member of a group that has historically benefited from the exploitation of others, pause and reflect “How do you feel seeing changes in the social landscape, with members of minorities rising to your level? Do you feel uncomfortable? Why?” A good exercise is to reflect deeply on the following quote: “When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”
The truth is that privileged situations often seem to be fair, unbiased, and evenhanded to the privileged. When you’re accustomed to privilege, initiatives to promote equality can feel unfair. But that doesn’t mean that they are. So, if you are a member of a group that has historically benefited from injustices and inequality, recognize the privileges you have enjoyed and do what you can to stop all oppression and exploitation. Treat all equally without any distinction or discrimination.
And if you are a member of a group that historically has been discriminated against and barred from equally accessing opportunities and developing yourself to the fullest, do your best to live as much as possible as an equal in the present. Do the work of seeking justice while always keeping in mind that the final goal is the promotion of unity.
If, on one hand, the burden of changing the status quo rests on the shoulders of those who have benefited from the system and have the power to promote changes, on the other hand, the emergence of a new status quo also depends on the members of oppressed groups letting go of persistently identifying themselves as victims.
We are all in this together. We should think of ourselves as one body. If we keep inflicting wounds on others, even if we do it unconsciously, we are, in fact, wounding ourselves, and we will never heal. And if we keep bringing back and reopening wounds of the past, the same will happen: we will never heal.
The truth is that we need a clean slate. We need to start over and live together guided by precepts of total equality. It’s a difficult dance, but both groups have to learn it.
I am aware that there are no easy ways of getting out of this quandary, but we must use our imagination, be creative, and come up with solutions that can break this cycle.
What comes to mind is One Planet United’s motto: “Embrace diversity. Promote unity. Create community.”
So, here are eight guidelines to live by:
1. Say “No” to tribes that exclude others.
2. Refuse membership in exclusive clubs.
3. Leave all gangs, not only the most notorious ones, but also the gangs created by race, religion, tradition, ideology, sports fanaticism, and national pride. Notice how gangs divide us and make ill-will and hatred toward others grow in us.
4. Don’t look for refuge and safety exclusively in places populated by those who look and think like you. Go out, explore, and mingle.
5. Be suspicious of those who profess, “We are right, they are wrong. We are good, they are bad.”
6. Say “Yes” to diversity and inclusion.
7.Mingle, blend, associate, join, and unite with everybody, especially those you were told are different from you.
8. Embrace diversity. Promote unity. Create community.
Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The old paradigm of a world divided in clans, nations, and parties that engage in power struggles and fight one another must be replaced by the new paradigm of the whole of humanity working together as a species to protect the planet and enhance everyone’s life. We need to set aside our differences and transcend our small-minded tribal identities. We have to realize that, in fact, we are not different, and that those who invent and magnify differences among humans are the ones who, in several ways, benefit from animosity and conflict. We must go beyond the damaging loyalty to our little gangs, and understand how these misplaced loyalties are endangering our future.
Instead of seeing ourselves as members of different religions, nations, ethnicities, schools of thought, political groups, or bands of brothers, we must see ourselves as fellow crew members of the same endangered spacecraft—Spaceship Earth—who must work together in order to maintain it in perfect conditions, so it may be able to continue its journey through the cosmos. We must remember the words of Walt Whitman, “Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you,” and replace the illusion that we are separated from one another with the understanding that we are all interconnected. We must remember that we are all descendants of the same ancient parents. We are members of the same family. We are all brothers and sisters. We are one.
Our destiny is to live together, either hating or loving each other. Let’s start over. Let’s begin again. I know it is a tall order but someone has to do it, and it might as well be us. We must let go of the past wounds and commit ourselves to be the agents of the biggest change our world needs. Rather than seeking revenge we shall seek reconciliation. We shall pave the path for future generations to live in harmony. What we will leave for them is based on the choices we make now.
“I am not a thing.
I am no-thing.
I am nothing and everything.
I am not separated from you.
You are not separated from me.
We are interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent.
We inter-are.”