Do you believe in the Brotherhood of Man?

Every day, all over the world, total strangers risk their lives for one another. Individuals select insanely dangerous professions at least partially in an effort to save others. Here in Los Angeles, firefighters are spending hour after hour literally walking right up into an inferno to try a put it out--an effort they know will take days or weeks and will certainly kill some of them. Yet they do it. Voters in nations the world over have demanded their taxes be used not only to defend them, but to help their neighbors. Look around you, there are thousands and thousands of worthwhile charities receiving money every single day. When disaster strikes--in New Orleans, in China, in countless locations--people from all over this planet send help.

I'll bet millions of people felt rage and personal horror upon learning about that girl kidnapped and enslaved by rapist all these years. But why? We don't know her. Her family aren't friends of ours. Most of us are nowhere near these events. Yet we take it personally.

Because we do care. Because some part of so many of us looks upon our fellow human beings and thinks "My brother...my sister...my daughter...my son...my father...my mother..."

*Applauds David's post*

And yet, by the same token, millions of people can walk or drive by another human in obvious distress without even missing a beat. When there's a horrible wreck on the highway, the people on the other side of the median slow down in the hopes of seeing something 'interesting.' People feel justified in feeling superior to someone that's 'different' in the eyes of society, and determine that they don't warrant the same rights and privileges as a result. And many people have only one true love in their lives, and it's sitting in their bank account or stock portfolio.

Do I believe in the brotherhood of man? I believe there are two: the haves and the have nots.

*Keeps applauding*

Diana Hignutt said:

To me, it's not the same question, and it is.

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Not only to I believe that organized religion is a major form of tyranny over the human mind, and that everyone's relationship to the universe is definitionally unique, I do not hold to any tennets of religious belief.

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It may surprise you but I was referring to the Kingdom of heaven metaphorically, to mean a place where people as a whole recognize their innate interdependence and kinship (here I think of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) -- where a person's actions follow an understanding of this interdependence rather than a sometimes active ignorance of it; we're equally good at ignoring as we are listening. I took your question to mean, Are we listening or are we ignoring?


AMC

Are you asking does it exist or should it?

I believe that human beings should help one another in need, though these days it is hard to know when and how we should help. In a crisis there are people who rise to the occasion and help anyone in need. There are those who help only the ones they consider their own people with lines drawn in different places based on family, civil, ethnic or religious affiliation. and there are those who take advantage of the situation tp prey on the weak. I strive to be more on the help everyone who needs end of the spectrum but I've never been challenged too deeply.

I am a proud Baha'i. I absolutely believe in the Brotherhood of Mankind.

I *beeping* believe it absolutely.

I seriously doubt it, but there are occasions where I almost start believing again. I'd like to believe in it.

See, I grew up with that sense of community in the 1960's & 70's. That sense of shared responsibility for what was happening. Even though I didn't particularly like one of my neighbors, I'd stand with him/her if they needed someone to back them up when they needed it. To me, that's what it's all about.

When I became an adult and a parent in the 1980's, somehow that sense of community disappeared. It didn't dissipate, it just wasn't there anymore. Your neighbor was just as likely, if not more likely, to call child welfare on you if you let your kid play outside "too long" in the winter, or they didn't see you sitting on the porch to watch them. There was no more "Just running to the market--do you need anything?" questions between friends. Just seemed that everyone was out to protect themselves and rat out everyone else the moment they could.

It was very sad.

But there are times when I see a glimmer of that community--someone calling attention to a dropped item. Someone helping corral a renegade todder who's just discovered running and doesn't badmouth the harried mom for incompetence. Someone who gives the last cart at the market to the mom with 3 kids instead of taking it for themselves.

Now it's called "random acts of kindness", like it's a special thing--which is sad to me. When I was a kid, I was taught that was just how people were supposed to be all the time.

So, I'd like to believe. I really would like to get back to the people-view I experienced as a child. Unfortunately, I really doubt that it's turning into a legend more than a reality.

That said, it doesn't mean that I've changed how I try to live my life. Teach by example, and all.

I believe most communities can be "cracked open" and made to reveal more than any of the single individuals within it dreamed possible. I have seen it happen on more than a few occasions. It is always moving. It is always precious.

We all have within us, a heart of darkness, but also the capacity to be a light to the whole world. Often, we need a catalyst before we will move towards either. A brotherhood of man? No. I believe that communities are perpetually being born and dying based on the individual choices of those within it, and that some burn brighter than others because the people within it keep feeding the better angels of our nature. Could we one day see every face as one of our siblings that we must care for? It would be glorious.

There would be precious little we could not bear, precious little we could not overcome, but to do that, we would all have to chose to be much more selfless, much less careless with our thoughts, words and works. And the choices would have to be born out of love rather than duty. Could we love our own sisters and brothers better? Yes. Do we? Not always. Not as often as we should. Good Thread. Good reminder.

Excuse me, I have to go call my sister now.

Diana Hignutt said:

Do you believe in the Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Man/Woman? It seems to me, at this moment, that this is the crux of all political questions, and the answer, to me, seems to determine our very future here on Earth.

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I do not. I do not consider myself to be part of any brotherhood, tribe, or nation. I belong to myself, and I only grant my loyalty to individuals who matter to me.

We havent learned crap. And we should have by now.


That's my overall view. The details would bore y'all to tears

I belong to myself

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Sure you do vacuum boy!



AMC

People are mostly sheep, so:

Yes, if everyone else is doing it; no if everyone else isn't doing it.

Personally speaking, I've risked myself for strangers before. I'd do it again. But most people are happy to be helpless and uninvolved. That keeps them safe.

I believe in the oneness of humanity. I believe that there is only
one race, the human race. Fulani, Swedish, Guarani, Tamil,
Fijian, Italian, Inuit, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Baha'i, Atheist,
rich, poor, farmer, musician, chef, computer programmmer,
old, young....we are one people.

What about Belarusian hairdressers?

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I'd like to buy the world a Coke
And keep it company
That's the real thing.

(Nostalgia video here)

In certain people and certain groups at certain instances, absolutely. I see pieces of it every day. The world as a whole? Absolutely not.

Alvah said:

I believe in the oneness of humanity. I believe that there is only
one race, the human race. Fulani, Swedish, Guarani, Tamil,
Fijian, Italian, Inuit, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Baha'i, Atheist,
rich, poor, farmer, musician, chef, computer programmmer,
old, young....Jeffery Dalmer, Idi Amin, Charles Manson, Osama Bin Laden, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Jim Jones, etc...we are one people.

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Bold/Italics additions mine.

A very nice sentiment Alvah, however, I claim no oneness with those I've mentioned. There can be no oneness, IMHO, until the conditions that create those I've mentioned, and millions of others are corrected.

Whatever action or behavior engaged in by one human being is added to the behaviorial spectrum of all humans. From jeffrey dalmer to Mother Teresa, that is the range of human behavior. Don't much care for it.

POPASMOKE said:

Bold/Italics additions mine.

A very nice sentiment Alvah, however, I claim no oneness with those I've mentioned. [Dahmer, Hitler et al.].

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I agree with you. My point was that race, or culture, or
economic class or religion or age should not be barriers to
seeing all humanity as one people.

Obviously people like the ones you mentioned have committed
acts so evil that maybe they have forfeited their right
to be considered part of the human family.

I think it's all about what we believe, and if we choose to believe we are the victims of ugliness, and not prioritize the understanding and kindness we've encountered/received, then we are doomed to act out our resentment vis a vis aggression, war, selfishness, deceit. . .all of which can be rationalized by virtue of our victimization. If, however, enough people rise above the anger to embrace all the small kind, courageous acts that define the best of humanity, we will endure. I submit it's only as simple as a grudge that holds any individual down. . . .