The rise of the rugged individual has over shadowed common sense. What began as a movement toward self-reliance swung into a backlash of community. We have slipped into a “me” culture supported by top down leadership and unchecked capitalism.
The result is that we have all suffered.
By most accounts human beings are at their best when in community. We have an inherent need to feel connected. We thrive when we are all doing well. This need to belong coupled with rugged individualism has given way to perverse alliances. Too many of us no longer feel the connection to the entire human race. And the alliances we choose are often in competition with one another. Cooperation is considered less important, even trivial. Too many look to the top dog, or covet that position.
In Beloved Community (as explained by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), there is no top dog. There are unique individuals who recognize their own self worth and are willing to accept that in another.
There can be no strong and healthy community without unique and self-aware individuals.
The contemporary focus on outward strengths and power strategies cause us to relinquish our inner strengths. These strengths are universally available. Clarity and self-awareness help us navigate the world in which we live. Empathy and compassion allow us to recognize other human beings as similar, not different. There is more waiting to be tapped, if only we will take the time.
I’m grateful for the circles of communities that I dwell in, and I’m most grateful to those individuals who remind me we are one planet, one people.
Let’s bring back cooperation. Let’s find our uniqueness again.
let kindness win 