On perspectives
One.
The number One has become very important among socially minded thinkers. It represents the idea that we are all equal in this world; that one person's struggles or successes should be our struggles or successes. That we are all "cut from the same cloth" to use a cliche. Thinking about the "oneness" of things reminds us to treat everyone we meet with respect. It's quite an ideal, and I quite like it.
I've been doing some thinking about this "oneness", and something dawned on me. It seems that my concept of an ideal world might be quite different than what another thinks the ideal world should be. In essence, it's possible that there are different "onenesses" out there.
In fact, it only makes sense! Since no two people share the exact same experiences there simply HAS to be differences in values and beliefs.
If this really is the case, then how are we to determine whose ideal is more ideal? Who gets to decide?
Think about how many people there are in the world. Each one has a different perspective on the "way things SHOULD be". The question of how to determine the "right" perspective has plagued moral philosophers for years. It's a mind boggler!
While I like the "oneness" approach to things, I wonder if perhaps we're over-simplifying. What if we acknowledged each persons (different) perspective of the world as being as good as our own? What if, instead of One World thinking ("once everyone sees the world MY WAY we'll all be better off") we adopted the notion of Seven Billion (!) World thinking?
Perhaps it seems silly at first, but I think its got merit. Under the Oneness model there's no way to determine the best Oneness, and we are quite defensive about the Oneness we feel is "right".
If we recognized that there are Seven Billion perspectives of the world out there, we might be more inclined to learn what others think...to see how others make sense of the universe... to perhaps find pieces to help us as we try to construct our own moral platforms.
What if my concept of the ideal world could be made better by learning about yours?
Just some food for thought.
There's a lot to gain when we see things in a different way.
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