Ubuntu

 = "I am because we are"

I was on social media today and I saw the following story:

"An anthropologist proposed a game to children in an African tribe.

He put a basket of fruit near a tree and told the children whoever got there first won the sweet fruits.

When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats.

When he asked them why they had run together like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: 'Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?'

Ubuntu in their civilization means: (I am because we are)."

And the question, which is so missing to us all, "How can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?"

I have been studying History for a very long time. Pretty much from when I first learned to read onwards. And my BIGGEST take away from my study of History is that when we are United in a society that does it's best to work for ALL of it's members we are at our strongest. Not Mightiest, that is a different metric, Strongest.

Because in our most ancient DNA we are members of a Tribal Society. And if the whole Tribe does not thrive then no one thrives.

We are an offshoot of Primates. And in all Primate Societies they are groups. And the group must work together to survive. Yes, there is a Hierarchy. And the low person in the hierarchy does not live a great life. And they are still taken care of.

And, in our most ancient societies, we are in a tribal culture. And in order for the tribe to thrive eveyone had to cooperate to have enough to eat, a safe place to live, a warm place to sleep, a safe place to store food, and a cohesive force of protection from predatory animals, both other and human. And again, there is a hierarchy in place. And the furthest one down the table is still taken care of.

And then the concept of Money was introduced.

To be clear, Money itself is not either good or evil. It is an idea. And the idea is take something that everyone understands that is easily transportable and use it to define value so that someone does not need to bring a bushel of wheat to the market to get a sickle to cut that wheat. They can give the maker of the sickle a token that people call money to represent value and that token can later be exchanged for things the sickle maker needs. Like metal to make another sickle.

Purty basic. And, over time, money has become the God of All Religions and as a tool to manipulate in the pursuit of Power for many different peoples and organizations.

And with money came the concept of Deserving. And, if you could not make it, then you deserved the place you were in within that society.

The Rich and Powerful found ways to Hoard their Wealth and Power thru Ownership of Land, Inherited Titles, and pretty soon Wealth and Scarcity became Generational.

And Religion, which in our early History had been largely Cooperational, became Confrontational. If you did not believe the same you were an enemy.

I am not saying these two things are connected. I believe that each one is a progression from ideas that are, by themselves, not bad or good.

And finally, Politics.

Now Politics have always been around. Because Politics is basically the negotiation of the human experience involving groups. It is how we navigate situtions involving more that a few people.

Over time this navigation was overtaken by the pursuit of Power. And one of the best ways to measure power throughout History is measuring of accumulated Wealth. Money = Power and Power = Money.

And in this the concept of All for One and One for All, Thank You Mr Dumas, has been completely subsumed by Greed is Good.

Especially in the last Forty or so years.

In addressing this I want to bring up a few things:

• The legend of the Lone Wolf is a lie. Any wolf that is alone without a pack dies. Quickly. Wolves are a societal animal just like us. And dies quickly without a pack.
• The legend of the Lone Stranger is also a lie. Not quite as much. Very close. There is a reason that one of the first punishments for bad behavior that Humanity came up with was Banishment. A Human without their Community is Lost and usually dies pretty quickly. Not as much in Modern Society. It is still not an existence that I would want.
• The Legend of the Lone Entrepenour, or Self Made Man, is another fable. Someone comes up with an idea. Good. It is all the Community Supported Infrastructure that makes it possible. And often, it is the people who start with a good sized bundle who succeed the most.

Without Community we are Vulnerable and very likely not going to survive.  We are Social Animals built to thrive Together. Anyone who says different is trying to sell you something and this thing is most likely not good for you.

Thanks to the exploitation of the idea of Money, which in itself is niether bad or good, we have become very selfish and self seeking. We have lost the idea of Community or narrowed it down to only people exactly like us.

Thanks to population and technology this is not sustainable. It never was truly, however now we have the ability to wipe out the Human Race. Either through War, Man Made Enviromental Catastrophe, or just plain Indifference.

We are One. And we must acknowledge that as Truth, Accept it as Truth, and behave towards each other and the Earth from within that Truth. Or we will be gone sooner rather than later.

As I have said before, We must all Love each other or die.

The Human Race is at a very perilous crossroads. Either we become the Human Community or our chances of survival are not great.

Because if this World does not work for the least of us it does not work for any of us.

And after all, "How can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?"