A Global Perspective

I had a few minutes to read a few days ago, and jumped to the back of the book "Thanks for Being Late" which I have been reading off and on for a few months.  At the back, I found an extensive Acknowledgements section.  To be honest, when I envision myself writing a book someday, the acknowledgements section is short.  I always considered writing an individual endeavor.  Perhaps this is just my nature, more comfortable working alone, or perhaps it is just the reality that I express my opinions about topics which interest me, with research that is available at the click of a mouse, without much interaction with others.  Anyway, whether it be the stories I have written or the almost 400 posts on this blog, I do not often give credit to other people.   Even now, as I concoct this post about a gaining a global perspective, I imagine it will lean towards my own tendencies in perceiving this topic, without commenting (much) on someone else's viewpoint.

Anyway, the author in question acknowledged dozens of people for aiding him in the creation of his book.  Of course, his book did require a lot of research, and Friedman (the author) spent countless hours accumulating the information that he used to develop his "optimistic" viewpoint in this age of accelerations.  Hopefully, should I write such a book someday, I will employ a similar process that will both, enable me to write something informative, and alter my personal limitations when it comes to working with and learning from, others.

But the real point of this post is to comment on the diverse nature of the people with whom Friedman met and who contributed to his book.  I would not be exaggerating if I were to guess that he traveled to multiple countries, and interviewed people representing a dozen different nationalities.  Clearly, the author is an exceptional writer.  But his skill transcends his ability with words.  He is willing to seek out information from whatever the source, whether it be the most advanced technological organization on the planet or the least advanced hamlet in southeast Asia.  Friedman acknowledges some of the greatest minds alive today, as well as people who may never see their name in print again.  He shows a true global perspective because he understands the scope of what we know, what we are learning, and what we are seeking to know, and most importantly, that ALL people, everywhere, are engaged in the same mission.  It is this leveling of the field through a respect for each person's story and contribution that makes his book so compelling and worthwhile.

And, it is the lack of this type of perspective, or perhaps I should say the turning away from this perspective, that is harming our nation and our world.   Certainly, a little bit of xenophobia is alive in all of us, whether that fear is based in race, gender, religion, nationality or sexual orientation.  To put it another way, we are generally more comfortable with people who are like us, even though it is far more likely that we will be harmed, physically and emotionally, by someone we know as opposed to someone we don't know.  It is safer to seek an environment that is predominated by those who live, worship and think like ourselves.  It is why the various social media platforms have contributed so mightily to the partisanship that embroils virtually every big topic of discussion.  Whether our physical world is diverse or not, we can build our online world to be as homogeneous as we like, with one accepted view above all others.  And, with plenty of feedback to reinforce that view, and discard all the rest.

Without a bigger perspective, we stop learning. 

Freidman's book might still be good, had he only interviewed people he knew or discussed information he already had gleaned, but it is so much better because he sought out other opinions, experts as well as everyday folks, and pushed his knowledge base far beyond what he had already learned.  He states, more than once, that it sometimes took more than one interview with a person to fully integrate their knowledge into his words so he could inform his readers.  Rather than pretending to know the subject, and passing along info that most of us would not have known was incomplete, he broke through his own limitations to better understand and communicate. 

When we seek to interact with people unlike ourselves, we learn about ourselves.  When we seek sycophants, we become immersed in our own perspective, unable to see when we are wrong or on the wrong path.

It is normal to be afraid of the unknown.  I often hear people say that the world is moving faster and faster, and that it is becoming a challenge, even a hardship, to keep up.  While it is something that has probably been stated for many generations, Friedman documents how it is actually true, to a degree, for us, now.  Whether it be a graphed depiction of the advances in medicine, transportation or communication, those graphs always show a mostly straight line for long periods of time, then a sharp upswing to what almost seems to be an infinite point, suggesting that the advances are not over yet.

How we react to these changes, whether by circling our proverbial wagons to keep out anything new, or by opening up our minds and hearts to our differences, knowing that these differences are being expressed in the form of other humans, fellow travelers, and creations of the God we all say we believe in and trust, is what will determine if we survive the accelerations that are buffeting us, or become the dinosaurs of the future.

The good news is that once we embrace diversity, the cycle feeds itself.  We become more comfortable with new perspectives which allows us to be open for even newer people and ideas which leads to moments when we our awareness of our differences is positive.  Or perceived with the understanding that the differences are what adds up to what makes Earth unique in the universe.

Will it take alien life to come to our out-of-the-way home in the Milky Way for us to begin acting as a family of man?  And, if so, will that start anew our fear of those who differ from us?  At least that  difference might originate from a new species perspective rather than the 0.1% difference there is currently among the various peoples of our planet. 

In the end, perhaps our creator will judge us solely on how we handled that 0.1% difference.  With understanding and love and cooperation, or with guns and hatred and walls.