Perspectives from Some Humanity-Oriented Icons

Associate Professor of Economics and Finance

Upper Iowa University

I. Introduction


            Many forces are making the world increasingly smaller and a movement for global citizenship is underway. Better technology and transportation now facilitating greater mobility among people; borders for ideas, in particular, are virtually disappearing. Many national and international organizations acknowledging this are reinventing themselves to not only benefit from it, but also serve as catalysts. Major multinational corporations are embracing global citizenship.1 Leading institutions of higher learning in many developed countries are integrating the notion into their curriculums.2 Although global citizenship is still a loosely defined term legally, politically and institutionally, there are efforts--academic and otherwise, to scope out its notion.

            Of course, before the movement for global citizenship gather momentum, the spirit of global-belonging (aka belonging to the world) ought to be widely embraced. In this brief essay, we explore the need for the spirit by reviewing the ideas of several icons of twentieth century: Einstein, a name most known to science, Martin Luther King, Jr., world renowned for the struggle against racism, Mohandas Gandhi, a well known spiritual and political leader from India, and Kazi Nazrul, a name little known beyond his region and language.

Will Humanity Overcome or Be Defeated...

I'd have more hope for humanity if it looked at the world and its own self more objectively. I get tired of seeing human-biased answers. If you want a true answer from a human regarding its future, don't ask the human.

            Though I'd say, we just don't know. More information means more power. More power means more ability to kill more people at one time. Also more information means a more efficient way of doing things. Humans are designed to be mental and somewhat physical workhorses. We've evolved enough intellectually to where we don't really need to evolve intellectually. We don't want to think hard so we design computers. We don't want to work hard, so we design machines. Our creation could run us into obsolescence and then we'll ask ourselves what is the purpose of all this in the first place.

Spiritual Questions to Ponder

             As we think about ourselves and our purpose here on planet earth, pondering timeless spiritual questions, may lead us to a new understanding.

            What if we really are all One: one with each other, one with all life, one with the Creator of everything that is? What if, whatever you do or say to another, you are actually doing to yourself, to God? Would you still the curse the guy who cut you off in traffic? Would still hate the person next door who practices another faith or is a different color or is involved in a same sex relationship? If that person holding up the line at the grocery store with their food stamps was Jesus would you mutter under your breath, go get a job and stop having children? What if you discovered the homeless man you walked past and ignored today was God? What if, we really all, really are, Children of God?

Racism

              Racism is the belief that the genetic factors which constitute race are a primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Racism's effects are called "racial discrimination." In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or receive preferential treatment. 

             Racial discrimination typically points out taxonomic differences between different groups of people, although anyone may be discriminated against on an ethnic or cultural basis, independently of their somatic differences. According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnicity discrimination.

            There is some evidence that the meaning of the term has changed over time, and that earlier definitions of racism involved the simple belief that human populations are divided into separate races. Many biologists, anthropologists, and sociologists reject this taxonomy in favor of more specific and/or empirically verifiable criteria, such as geography, ethnicity, or a history of endogamy.

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Courtesy of: Wikipedia