This post is going to cover everything from sports to politics, so strap in tightly, folks.
I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about the divisions that divide us as humans. The racial divide is heavy on all of our minds, as African Americans are feeling the effects of oppression in ways I can't even begin to imagine. We have political divisions, highlighted in a vitriolic first presidential debate a few evenings ago. We have divisions as nations, divisions of religious beliefs, divisions of just about everything. It's so incredibly easy to place labels, to make someone else the "other." I'm often guilty of labelling people, too. If someone acts in a way I don't like, I'll label them as incompetent, as stupid, as lazy. That's a personal flaw, but I think the way a lot of people approach broader labelling. One action or even set of actions doesn't define a person, in the same way that the actions of one person or one group, don't necessarily define an entire set of people.
I don't know why, but I think our tendency as humans is to point out flaws. We critique everything. We critique all things from what we ate for lunch to our presidential candidates. I think that evolutionarily it probably comes from a desire to improve; e.g., if your hunting technique can be improved, you improve it because it helps you eat. From that same vein of thinking, we generalize to protect ourselves. We generalize all hungry tigers as dangerous because if you come into contact with a hungry tiger, you've got a good chance of dying. I think sometimes that our brains overplay that rule of thought, and we start to apply it to personal characteristics and demographics instead of understanding how important what we have in common is.
The most important thing us humans have in common is just that: we're all humans. We're capable of love, of change, of hate, fear, and compassion. Every single one of us has a beating heart in our chest and a brain between our ears. That's beautiful. If you're religious, you say it's a God or gods that unites us. If you're not, the beauty is inherent in that in some way we all share the same makeup. We're all skin and bones. We're capable of feeling for one another and committing unbelievable acts of kindness. We all know humans are capable of opposite acts of terror and hatred, but aren't those the outliers?
I was struck in the last few days by the response to the death of Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez. He was an incredible pitcher, but I saw baseball fans and non-baseball fans all grieving the loss of someone who was just generally a good person. I knew Jose Fernandez only as a pitcher on an opposing team, but that didn't stop my eyes from tearing up when I saw the sadness of his teammates. We as humans have that connection; we see someone else suffering, and our hearts tell us to feel for them and with them. The labels we place on each other are what tell us differently. We train our brains to say, "They're different from me. They don't deserve my compassion." All of the problems in the world are a direct result of forgetting the humanity of those around us.
Something I think is interesting is hearing stories about deep idealogical changes in people. For example, a bigoted man may openly hate homosexuals, only to find out that his son is gay. That story can go two ways: one, he maintains his bigotry and is estranged from his son. Two, he has a change of heart and continues loving his son as he had before, realizing he was wrong about homosexuals in general (way oversimplified, but you get the idea). Another example on a less potentially hateful scale is this: we simply don't understand things until we encounter them. Perhaps, we don't see the big problem with the refugee crisis, but then we meet a refugee and our perspective changes. They're just like us. We're all so similar despite what divides us.
The divisions I tend to make are idealogical in that it bothers me very much when other people have biases, discriminations, or hatred for others. I've noticed a lot of othering in the American political race. If you support Trump, to Hillary supporters you are subhuman, incomprehensible, and the reason for the downfall of modern progress. If you support Hillary, to Trump supporters, you too are subhuman, supporting the devil himself. We take our point-of-view and what we think is best, and we generalize because that's how we're programmed to survive. That's how we see the world improving.
I know what I think politically, but perhaps I take pause because I have family members who support Trump. At first, I just couldn't believe it. I knew they weren't hateful people, but I also knew that they support a hateful man. Previously, I had thought that anyone who supported Trump must themselves be hateful, but I know that to not be true. I've had to dig within me to understand why Trump is appealing to people. I had to focus on the fact that political divisions are a human institution, but they're not part of our humanity. Trump supporters are still human. They're deserving of love. When we let these divides seed too deeply, we see fights at rallys. We see hateful rhetoric and shameful acts.
I was struck by a quote from Anne Frank. "In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart." I think that this is something we must keep in mind. We're all, by nature, good. We learn hate. We learn fear. We learn the labels and the divides. Perhaps, Anne Frank had similar thoughts to me in wondering how Hitler could have risen to power. Was every German hateful? Did every German want the Jews dead? Of course not.
So, I ramble a bit, but my thoughts boil down to a simple idea. Despite our divides, find some common ground. Confront your divides head on. Explore why other people think how they do. Instead of writing them off, explore how their brain works and try to squeeze into their shoes. See what motivates their hearts. Find a way to realize how united we all are despite our differences.
I think rediscovering unity is the key to the worlds' problems. Seeing all people as equal humans can end wars, stop climate change, and inspire change. I wrote a post a few months ago about respecting opinions, and I think my words were too harsh. We needn't necessarily respect hateful opinions, but we should listen, and we should learn. The world succeeds together, and it fails together. World War II doesn't happen with one man. It happens when a whole civilization forgets our common humanity. I hope more than anything that moving forward, humans can remember that we're all human.
