Division is all around us…
Everywhere you look today we are overwhelmed by division. Racism, sexual orientation, politics and religion all arenas seem to be trying to divide us from each other. It seems as though you can’t even have a conversation without it turning in to an argument or a debate. All topics seem to be off limits these days and it leaves us hating each other and literally at each other’s throats. Who’s right?
A feeling of helplessness…
Many people are wanting to see change and want to help but they feel so helpless. I am just one person what can I do and it seems anything someone tries is ripped to shreds and amounts to nothing. Even innocent efforts at healing our viewed as adding to the problem. So what can we do?
One change you can do today to address division…
Labeling to make life easier…
I have found that one thing we have done as humans to make life simpler is we use labels to identify people. We use them for convenience and to allow our brains to do less work. For example we label people into political parties republican and democrat to help us know where people stand. We introduce people as this is sam he is my asian friend. Each religion uses labels to determine who is in and who is out. It is a part of the fabric of our everyday lives and it helps us to make sense of the world.
Labels create division…
The problem with labels is we are all individuals and it is impossible to label someone into a broad category because there are way too many variables. The result of using the labels is we associate the label with the worst possible example of that label we can think of when it is a label we are using that isn’t used to describe us. And when we use a label to describe us we think of the best possible example of that label we can think of. If we are republican we think all democrats are the exact same as the worst democrat we can possible think of. While we think all republicans are the exact same as the greatest example we can think of. Thus, something we have created to simplify our lives as turned into something that complete divides us.
The safety of labels…
Most people like labels so we can hate without being a bad person. All republicans are idiots is an easy statement to make. Sam is a moron personalizes it and makes us a bad person. We like to hold on to our labels so we can divide, hate, and yell with a clear conscience. We can call att customer support and rip to shreds the person that answers the phone because we aren’t talking to Cindy we are talking to att.
Stop using labels…
One thing you can do today to start the journey to change is to stop using labels and see people as individual humans. When you refer to people don’t lump them into a label but speak of them as an individual. Everyone is literally unique and it is impossible to lump them into a label. Take time to use people’s names and get to know them as an individual. Don’t be lazy and use labels to walk through life or division will just continue to get worse.
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