“Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.
Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love.
We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience.
If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones.
But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.”
~Carl Sagan
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7 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Perhaps the strongest influence working against any movement towards a feeling of universal community is nationalism (defined as broadly as Orwell did) and its bastard brother , patriotism.
Carbine
Level 6
Sep 23, 2023
3
In a wider sense you could say religion, since nationalism is in the most general way, especially the way Carl Sagan means it here, just a subset of religion.
I don't know about places outside the U.S., but here the level of toxic hate is pretty high for those outside their chosen group. There's a lot of all or nothing if you want to be in a certain group. None of it is surprising, disenfranchise enough people and they form their groups and plan their moves. Hopefully we can get through the next year without blowing up the planet.
silverotter11
Level 9
Sep 23, 2023
4
In the movie version of Things to Come, the final scene after the Space Gun has fired two astronauts to fly around the moon. Raymond Massey says that Humanity can grovel, searching for scraps of food, or, reach for the stars... The choir then sings "Which shall it be? Which shall it be? AAAhhhh-Ah- A-Ahhh." OK. Maybe over the top. Or not?
In growing bacteria, one uses a sterilized wire in a loop to get single bacteria to give rise to a 'colony'. The individual bacteria grows and divides, making the invisible visible. But then, the levels of toxic waste products build up to the point where division stops...
racocn8
Level 9
Sep 23, 2023
3
There may be some rare athletes of humanism and cosmopolitism who can view the whole humanity as their extended "family", but for the majority of us, the nation seems to be the upper limit, the largest sphere we can identify with, and even this circle is shrinking again. The trend is towards smaller so-called neo-communities, ideological tribes we identify with.
Yes, the future will be a new, post-modern version of tribalism, and future politics will be some sort of identity politics, on the left and the right.
Thibaud70
Level 7
Sep 23, 2023
1
Given the current political climate in our country, I somehow doubt we'll ever see everyone (let alone those who are in positions of power and authority) suddenly become loyal to each other. Guess we could remain hopeful (cautiously optimistic) though.
SpikeTalon
Level 9
Sep 23, 2023
1
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