Being in countries where the wealthy do not live in ghettos, where there is not segregation by class or wealth, almost forces us to see that we are all the same. In the USA, it is harder to see this. Middle class people don't go to the slums. Kids grow up not knowing about the underside of our society.
If we strive to promote our individualism or protect our earthly gains with walls or guns, we most certainly create situations where it is easier to think we are better than someone else. Or that we should be treated differently.
When Subcomadante Marcos was a spokesperson for the uprising in Chiapas twenty years ago, he was asked "Who are you?" He replied with a long list. (this is not a quote. But you'll get the drift). I am a peasant in El Salvador. I am a prisoner in San Quentin. I am the Pope. I am a Jew in Poland in 1939. I am a housewife in Kansas. I am a Wall Street broker on top of my game. On and on he spoke. Ending with "I am you."
We are all in this global soup together. What effects one of us, effects all of us. Think about the simple idea of globalization. We are all the same when it comes to air and water . The Fukisima toxins are completely egalitarian.
We need our neighbors. We need our friends. We need to stop trying to make hay on our individual achievements and realize we are all one. A hand does not work very well without fingers. One of the most 'stand up' individuals living right now, The Dalai Lama, has a different vocabulary from Marcos, but seems to come from the same place. Individualism has made a mess of things. Being a egalitarian person starts the antidote.
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