Exploring Non-Alienation.

“As members of the world nations, we must do what is right and not just what is easy”.

I knew I had made the best possible ending for my speech at the Model United Nations Conference as I sat down and put on what I considered as a delegate-like-look. My internet history for the past few days was a landslide of documents all related to the refugee crisis and its possible solutions to solve what has been gnawing the moral conscience of the world. All the research done over the past few days gave me the stark realization that each one of us is distancing ourselves from the rest of mankind in a scale never seen before.

the world as we know it today!!

Our daily doses of morning news is filled with miserable articles on refugee crisis, the migrant issues, the pride march, hate crimes, honor killings, hyper-nationalism and the likes of such.

What lies at the core of it all??

In spite of taking pride in advancing as a species, are we forgetting to embrace the core ideals of humanness??

Are we focusing on our differences from our brothers and refusing to identify the elements that bind us together as members of a global community??

The recent upsurge in hyper-nationalism and xenophobic agendas has found not-so-subtle political expressions . At a time when boundaries should be apparently erased because of the technology that supposedly acts as rallying points, we tend to focus more on the differences and as a result we have hardcore nationalist idealists occupying higher echelons of power. The Brexit and the recent comments by some of the world leaders were instances of promoting the nationalist schemes. While we can keep the political trade offs and diplomacy issues away from this, we need to introspect on whether we ourselves entertain such notions like aversion towards “others” .

The moment we stop fighting for each other is the moment we loose our humanity- 2012(Movie)

Humans have difficulty in accepting anything or anyone that is different from us. We always tend to gravitate towards the structure and order and as a result, we find comfort in what we are familiar with. This trait is a natural one. Imagine being thrown into a large stadium with unknown people. We naturally forge friendships with people whom we share a language or the nationality or have some shared past. These unique identities of shared past and common aspirations for future make us distinct . But when our sense of individualism overpowers our shared sense of “belongingness” on this planet, then we refuse to identify that we are all of same species and our basic instincts and our hopes for the future are one and the same.

Famed historian and writer, Yuval Noah Harari in his TedX talk “What explains the rise of human?” spoke on how the ability to work collectively in large groups make us idiosyncratic. He hypothesizes that this ability of “collective living” helps us survive and thrive. This is the ability that made us evolve as a species. By focusing on our differences, we are shooting down our best chance of survival. We are poised at a critical juncture of history, humans face a multitude of problems ranging from climate change to water wars and the likes of such and the decisions and choices of today go a long way in determining the our future. We need to stop fighting against each other and start fighting for each other.

Diversity is our advantage.

Embracing diversity in the existing social structure has its share of economic benefits as well. Studies have shown that diverse societies tend to thrive better. They can better adapt to changes. Multi-national companies have attempted to diversify their project teams as this procedure drastically improves the efficiency and in turn generate more revenue.

There is no religion or ideology greater than “humanism”.

All religions propound the ideal of love and we need to imbibe that feeling of oneness that helped us in the “survival of the fittest”. All ideologies that withstood the test of time were built on the firm foundations of love for mankind. It is no secret that the times of adversaries bring out the best or the worst in people. The August floods that struck the state of Kerala taught us that once united, there was no power greater than the ability of humanity to battle all odds . The amazing battalion of rescue workers comprising of army, navy, fishermen, firefighters, policemen, commoners and hundreds of unnamed people who worked through this disaster didn’t take a look at whether you had a rosary or a tilak or a skullcap. And this lesson is something we can continue. That the stranger across the street or the random person on the lift is your brother, rainy or otherwise.

A lesson in the times of flood.

We need to extend our umbrella of togetherness across the boundaries of religion and gender,nationality and every other wall that prevents us from calling that “stranger”, a “brother.”

We are not strangers in this fight for survival. Exploring non-alienation will usher us to a whole different world where we can rub shoulders with the unknown, where the “other” is not always bad. It exposes us to a world replete with thoughts we are otherwise scared to share and have. And definitely a beautiful one it is!!

“ Show me a stranger

and I’ll show you a friend that you haven't met yet” .

-Boonaa Mohammed