What actually unites mankind?

wax March 19, 2019 at 10:22 3550 views 12 comments

From slave to billionaire I would say the actual thing which unites everyone is hope.

It doesn't matter what you believe the narratives you buy into, the interests, the self interest you do or do not serve, all of which is often rubbish.....it is hope which keeps the world turning.

is that too simplistic?

edit: I think, therefore, if any one person's hope depends upon the ending of someone else's hope, then this will lead to society smashing itself apart, until this situation is no longer the case.

Comments (12)

Josh Alfred March 19, 2019 at 13:41 #266366 0 likes

I think there are other variables that unite man. I haven't had an inclination to the conclusion that hope is what unites man. I have been in and out of mental institutions my whole life, and hope there can be very lacking. These people have gone through wars through major loses, grief stricken, struggling with hardship. Hope by itself with no defined consequence (general as it would have to be) is rather obscure, and to conclude that hope itself is unifying would seem false to me personally.

Nils Loc March 19, 2019 at 17:56 #266479 0 likes

Not sure how to understand what is being asked.

Discord, dissension, strife, conflict might just as well be causes of temporary unity. To identify and sacrifice for an identity by sharing attributes, hardships, memories, experiences, culture, desires, beliefs et cetera, is as much cause of unity as disunity. A union requires existential conditions for its unity, whether emerging from natural states (self-organizing structures) or careful human deliberation.

Eating and drinking is a universal necessity among a lot of species. So maybe the recognition of this fact of survival has the potential to unify. But the belief as to what one ought to eat may separate us as much as it unifies.

That which by belief requires a conservation of its union must work to protect that union.

Life unifies by dissembling itself. Life eats life.

Deleted User March 19, 2019 at 17:58 #266482 0 likes

Fear also creates unity.

T Clark March 19, 2019 at 18:10 #266490 0 likes

Quoting Waya

Fear also creates unity.

Lao Tzu says:

[i]Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
you position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.[/i]

This is consistent with my own experience of both fear and hope. It ties in with another recent thread - The Source of Suffering is Desire? Hope, fear, desire - They push us, pull us, lead us to live in a different time and place than where and when we are.

So, if that's true, what would it mean if hope and fear are what all people have in common?

praxis March 19, 2019 at 18:18 #266495 0 likes

Common values and goals creates unity. More the latter, in some cases where, for instance, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

OpinionsMatter March 20, 2019 at 18:55 #266985 0 likes

Reply to wax Your view of humanity is interesting, but I suppose what really unites us is common ground. It doesn't matter whether you have hope, or love even, when you can find common ground. Examples would be the people who hate every one, their common ground would be hate, and everybody hates something. Belief, religion and favourite items can all unite us, the problem is people disagree on some things, but they will always have something in common.

I like sushi March 21, 2019 at 06:53 #267142 0 likes

The common narratives of being unite humanity. Obviously we have great difficulty in communicating our perspectives of this narrative though! :D

Jake March 21, 2019 at 10:37 #267203 0 likes

What actually unites mankind?

What we're made of.

Terrapin Station March 21, 2019 at 14:44 #267250 0 likes

What unites us? The fact that we're the same species, and we're a species that survives more easily when we interact with/cooperate with each other.

I like sushi March 21, 2019 at 15:14 #267256 0 likes

How about these obvious items: language, art, music, food and mortality?

TheMadFool March 25, 2019 at 10:58 #268557 0 likes

Reply to wax Didn't Gandhi once say "There are enough religions to divide us but not enough to unite us"? I think this points to only one thing - that we haven't found unity even in our best form - morality, to speak nothing of other areas where division, rather than unity, is the norm.

If you want my opinion though, the one thing that unites us all is our mind - the capacity for abstract thought. Didn't the "great" Aristotle define man as the rational animal?

TechnologyEndGame March 25, 2019 at 23:33 #268848 0 likes

Technology. Technology unites man because everytime it is used, or thought of, we are reminded that human cooperation took place to create the technology. Why not language, art, music, food and mortality? Because technology has greater potential for work. Then why not work? Why can't we say work unites man? Work is not an absolute unifying concept because it is rarely thought of during leisure and survival, and has been throughout history a reason to separate.

Why can we not say more absolute concepts than technology are the reason for unifying man? Because technology is tangible and common.