Respecting our Differences to Reclaim our Common Ground

We are coming to the close of a decade, and hopefully the next one will not be under the same negative hospices of conflicts, irrational violence and  turmoil. The most troubling event of the last decade was unquestionably the attack of 9/11/2001. The shock waves of this tragedy are still felt today worldwide, and have been front and center of the global geopolitical  conundrum. What 9/11 and the “chain reaction” it provoked- from the invasion of Afghanistan to the one of Iraq- has set us back not decades but centuries into the awful landscape of religious and cultural wars. Despite our technological achievements  our “global psyche” has regressed from 200o to 2010 to a stage where most conflicts can not be resolved by other means beside warfare.

We are now able to communicate with one another instantly across the planet, and anyone has access to the entire knowledge of humankind, yet in a disturbing paradox it seems that we are getting more disconnected despite the great tools that we have at our disposal. The virtues of  Humanism and Reason have been largely thrown out the window for the benefit of intolerance, fear of the other and a global sense of inevitable doom.

In America, the political discourse is toxic. The saga of  the health care bill debate is a perfect example of it. You would think that such a bill would be about practicality and the common good of Americans, but it immediately became about the irrational. The specter of socialism was invoked by the GOP, and in an effort to turn the health care reform into” health scare”, Sarah Palin brought up the concept of “death panels”. The only thing that both Democrats and Republicans  can agree on is war spending. It is of course motivated by the vast power of the industrial military complex over the US Congress, but also by the deeply flawed  philosophy that by exercising violence over a group of people peace can be the outcome. This “thinking” couldn’t be any further from the truth as violence only breeds violence  in an unavoidable vicious circle.

Today is Christmas, and beside any religious connotations; what Christmas should be about is a celebration of  the human spirit, of what unites all of us as a species not what separates us. The idea of Christmas, of giving gifts, has very little to do with any theology. It has to do with the fact that it is the time of the year when it is the darkest. In the Northern Hemisphere winter, people can suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Sweden (see photo) has a  much higher suicide rate during the winter  than at any other time of the year. We give gifts to one another to warm each others spirit.

We need to reclaim our common ground, which are at  the core of the human spirit. As tensions between the three main monotheist religions are boiling up again, Humanism can be our salvation. Humanism is the philosophy of trying to live the best life that we possibly can for ourselves, for all of human beings and for the sake of the natural world that surrounds us, sustains us and that we have put in danger. Humanism is a progressive life stance and a progressive philosophy of life without super-naturalism, without anything magical in an effort to affirm our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment, and mostly to aspire to the greater good of humanity.