Diversity in our unity.

Imagine having the entire world standing outside your doorstep. You have been bestowed with an amazing power of picking the people you want to be around you. Hang out with at coffee shops for overpriced shitty cappuccinos, share your troubles in life, go to the movies, sit and talk for hours. Who would you pick?

Most likely your rational brain would take some time in drafting a list. You would then pen down names of some of the most talented, famous, funny, good looking and charming people. But even when you have these people next to you sitting and sipping those shitty cappuccinos, they won’t end up being your best pals. The reason being our emotions invariably cling to those who amicably agree with us or vice-versa. We see the sense and purpose in the ethics and value system of these individuals. Over a period of time we fine tune our own ethics and value system in line with those around us. This tuning is rarely at a thought level and more at an emotional ‘feel’ level. For if it wasn’t, then we would be scampering to get hold of some of the best people around.

Pause for a moment and contemplate into what you feel is ethically right or wrong in life. The point when you declare something to be righteous or not invariably is the decision the people around you would take too. If this is amiss, you feel choked by being around those people and will immediately look to cling with those who are more or less around your value system.

We are excellent at stretching our network with those who agree to our set of beliefs. Hence the bonhomie. But do we assume this to be the only ethical system that exists? This is where our troubles begin, when we fail to understand a counter view to our righteousness. You and a stranger would both believe in ideas of freedom, success, love and relationships. But sticking to a particular version of an ideology creates rifts in our shared beliefs and common identity. Eg: We all need freedom, but the concept of freedom itself varies immensely among us. Some would term expression of the self as freedom. While some would relate to freedom in following a cult or a leader or a brand of choice.

Don’t you think this has drifted us apart, despite of our cohesion? The critical question that has emerged based out of this ideology is whether there is a unity in our diversity or diversity within our unity? However hard we appease ourselves to believe in the former, with our limited visibility on the standard moral value we keep plunging into the latter.