More and more, we are divided into communities of concern. And, more and more, these communities are pitted against one another. Each side can’t ignore the other side and live in its own world. This makes us less of a nation. This diminishes us as a whole, as a people.
Because, what binds us together are the pictures in our heads. Otherwise, as you might notice, instead of being bound together, people become bound in the sense of being constrained by the pictures in their heads (aka: their view of the world).
If we don’t see everyone as part of the picture, we’re not living in the same place & only perpetuating the problem.
I’ve written about this bigger topic before – Get Everybody In – because inclusion is a big topic (and also a big problem) we’re grappling with in society. That post had to do with messaging with social movements and garnering support from as many people as possible, but the idea translates to personal perspectives.
So often, especially with how ingrained government/politics has become in our daily lives and thinking, we have lines drawn between us based on demographics… well, labels.
Labels cause us to see each other as separate from ourselves. I’ve experienced this.
Labels separate us from the truth about ourselves and others. I’ve dealt with this, too.
Republican or Democrat… we’re all citizens who share this country.
Look at all the ways the one-or-the-other approach has created more problems than it’s solved. Look at how it makes people shut others out of their view of what it makes to be an American – it makes turds like Ted Cruz say that there’s no room for people he disapproves of in his America.
Read: The Karma of Politics
Turd Cruz’s turdiness aside, that’s got to be the worst stance to have regarding the worth & place of others in this world. And we’ve seen that approach pervade the social conscience, perpetuating more division as those being denied seek validation & recognition, and the other side digs their heels in, and the other side gets more entrenched… & no good comes of it.
We all exist, and have all different ways of existing. Disapproving of someone else’s existence doesn’t mean that it’s any less valid or any less part of the existence. Kind of like how being fake-positive by refusing to acknowledge anything unpleasant makes people more miserable in their own lives, when we fail to include everyone – even the people we disagree with – in the picture, we get similarly-unsatisfying results.
To see it differently, ask yourself this question: How did Hillary Clinton lose the 2016 election? Her entire constituency discounted the drumpf crowd… something the people who felt the need to MAGA had already been feeling for the prior 8 years. By failing to including the “deplorables” in their worldview, many people lost what they had hoped to accomplish.
I think of it like this:
If I have the 72-count Crayola WITH sharpener, I have so many more options to color a picture than if I had the 8-count of lame crayons they used to include in the back-to-school supplies pack. I don’t have to use them all, but they’re there for me to make what-I-want-to-happen happen.
Limiting beliefs hurt everything:
