In 2009, the Ugandan parliament introduced a bill that would make it illegal to be homosexual or advocate in any way same-sex relationship. Fast on the heels of this legislation is a similar bill that stands before the Rwandan parliament. What this positionality roundly, and sadly, suggests is that the only traits that we, as a species, have managed to perfect in the past 10 billion years are how to hate, fear and marginalize those who are different.
An acquaintance of mine was recently talking about a diversity training that his company had put in place. A cultural anthropologist by training, he commented on how, in some ways, the whole notion of diversity is absurd because we all originate from what amounts to a very small tribe of folks who somehow managed to spread themselves across the globe, simply in an effort to survive.
His point and premise was that race isn't a demonstrable reality, but a social construct that we tend to exploit for any number of reasons, none of them good. I suspect there'd be some argument from evolutionists and biologists on this point, but that point - as a premise for philosophical debate - is well taken.
The playing field is always level. No one is better than anyone else. Take away the country of origin, the social status, the car, the checkbook, the pedigree, the spiritual attainment and you - like me -- are still a naked ape hiding behind a thin veneer of civility. The variation and variety that we so condemn in our own species occurs, to some degree, in every species. Think black swan or albino shark or turtles (I think it's turtles) that switch their gender.
Because we can think discriminatively, we create categories. Because we create categories, we exclude. In excluding, we inform ignorance and in this ignorance - the ignorance of the ego -- there is suffering. This suffering is, in part, a suffering of exclusion that we all, ultimately, share because it robs us of the opportunity to experience the rich diversity of our brothers and sisters by keeping us in a psychosocial box.
So, in this season so touted for its burgeoning brotherhood -- whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Pagan, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu or something else -- make an effort to suspend your thinking; look past the trappings of civility and the tyranny of your own ego and try to really see the wo/man who stands before you as brother, sister, human, neighbor, friend.
Peace. Shalom. Salam wa aleikum. Merry met, merry well and merry meet again. Namaste.
© 2009 Michael J. Formica, All Rights Reserved
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