Unfortunately, it’s not new, but especially these days, there is turmoil all over the world. Humanity is riddled with wars driven by a sense of belonging to groups or ideologies. Conservatism and liberalism are at odds, yet both are important to set the rhythm of progress.
You can vote against the hijab or burkini or choose human rights, but it takes individual education to make an informed choice. You might make a decision out of a sense of belonging to your group, but is that just? This is a question we all should ask ourselves, yet we don’t. As an individual, your personal sense of justice relates to the principle of “don’t do to anyone what you don’t want done to you.” This was tried in Canada by conservatives in court, but human rights prevailed. Logically, if you put these issues in legal systems, human rights would and should come out on top. The real problem is not the belief system itself but the individual’s extreme passion, which blinds them to justice and tarnishes human education.
The beneficial aspects of belief systems can’t be discussed due to the politics of group belonging. The human journey toward secularism and democracy has been long, with religions pointing in their direction but failing to follow through because of political control.
If we all think secularism or democracy is better than religious systems, we should focus on justice and human rights instead of our group affiliations. Tolerance and human rights are the essence of democracy and secularism. Choosing extremism makes us no better than other extremists.
When an individual engages in discrimination, it is against human rights and thus cannot be right. In all human conflicts, both sides believe they are better, leading to group prejudice.
Prejudice is an infection humanity has suffered from for a very long time. No religion or governing system has cured it, so it is time to start from the bottom up by educating individuals. In conflicts, the real victims are individuals, and it is individuals who stoke the fires and burn in them due to personal loss of love. Thus, it is only the individual who can provide solutions to our conflicts.
Nationalism and religion have been at odds for a long time, but today their conflicts are boiling over. Chemical weapons have been used, and nuclear weapons could be next if we don’t start prioritizing humanity over our groups. This can’t happen unless ordinary men and women take charge, educate themselves, become the CEOs of their lives, balance the politics of belonging with a sense of freedom, value this life over the afterlife, and understand the pain of others’ love losses.
A sense of belonging can tear one apart, especially when the individual is uneducated and unable to call the shots for themselves. If you look around, you will see people doing the opposite of their religions’ teachings in the name of nationalism, committing treason or crimes against their nations in the name of religion.
The problems lie within individuals, so the key to solving these problems is also within individuals. You can drop all the bombs, throw money at the problem, or sweep it under the rug and close your eyes, but it won’t be solved unless individuals are educated. Gather all the money or even create a new poverty and education tax to treat the whole world as one and choose humanity over nations or religions.
This is the time when individual education is most needed because neither religions nor nationalism will back down due to their egotistic sense of belonging. There have been attacks on schools and universities because, God forbid, if individuals get educated, they might not join the wars. That is exactly what is needed: individuals must take the wind out of the sails of warships to stop conflicts. It is the individual who must stand up against the powerful sense of belonging to groups. They must choose humanity over nations or religions.
We all carry a personal sense of justice regardless of race, color, gender, nationality, or religion. God has blessed us all, and each and every one of us possesses free will. It’s high time to use it in the name of peace for humanity.
As an individual, you could be called an infidel and blamed for treason, but if you are an educated CEO of your life, you can balance the sense of belonging with the sense of freedom. Deep inside, you know that the only way to truly belong is to belong spiritually to humanity as a whole.