Living with different people

The survivability of our species relies on how resilient and adaptable we are to the disruption to our society and belief. We are now more ethnically mixed than ever. Technology has, perhaps in ways we couldn’t have anticipated, created much of the mix. We can now reach the other side of the globe in less than a day and our voices could be heard by others in every corner of the world. However, it doesn’t change the fact that we are different. As a species, we have come up with so many different ways to be different. This is just the world we live in. A world of inhomogeneity and limited space.

How do different people live together in close proximity?

This is not a new problem. Looking at humanity’s history, our civilization has been built by making small steps in the direction of answering that very question. We have the alliance of parties that keeps us at peace. We have the formulation of economies so that we could rely on each other with trade. We also have the establishment of civil laws to discourage those who act in opposition to the wellbeing of the society. We have seen how successful we can be when we act together. But as we have seen, destruction can be brought to the masses easily under this trust. Fear can be introduced much easier than hope. Violence easier than peace. Silencing you because of my opinion of you as a person is much easier than listening to your justification and understanding you. In the face of evil that we have witnessed lately, many reveal how racist and bigoted they are and many lose hope on the trust that we have built and start tearing down the very progress we have made. Obviously the answer to our question is complex, for we have suffered from it since the beginning of humanity. But we need to see each other, whether good or bad, as an integral part of our world. Let us understand what the real problem is and not blindly sever our own limb because we fail to recognize it as our own.