The late civil rights leader Bayard Rustin said, “We are all one, and if we don’t know it, we will learn it the hard way.”
Our world is divided, I’m sure you will agree. Whether in the rise of far-right extremism, the resurgence of anti-immigrant sentiments, or the widening reach of conspiracy theories, conflict and division abound in this day and age, fueled by mounting insecurities and a growing sense of alienation that plagues the world over. Though we have been at war with one another since the dawn of time, in many ways, we are more divided now than ever before—as hate crimes rise, as culture wars rage, and as political violence and armed conflicts intensify. And the polarization within democratic societies—from Canada and the United States to Brazil, Poland, and India—is growing, according to research, not only inside our borders but also between them.
Recent surveys from Canada and the U.S. suggest that support for LGBTQ+ rights is also weakening, while support for authoritarian and far-right politics is on the rise, driven by an ever-changing sociocultural landscape that leaves many among us feeling abandoned—and, in their isolation, filled with hate and despair. There are signs today that democracy is declining around the world as autocracy and authoritarianism gain support, with a new variety of strongmen who are redefining notions of despotism and populism in our age of social media.
The consequences of growing division and polarization are unquestionably dire. They include the loss of diversity within groups, reduced cooperation between groups, and, most pressingly, the erosion of democratic systems and institutions. And so it would seem that we are learning it the hard way.
But as Rustin proclaimed, we are all one, the importance of our differences an illusion.
One of the essential features of natural systems is their interconnectedness, and one of the essential features of living organisms is their mutual interdependence with other living and non-living systems (even if the organism in question is unable to see it or know it themselves; even if we cannot see it). To consider a basic (albeit well understood) example, animals depend on plants for the production of oxygen, while plants absorb the carbon dioxide released by animals. On a similarly simplistic level, bees, butterflies, and birds assist in pollination and seed dispersal, enabling the reproduction of a variety of plant species on which other organisms depend for food and shelter. Of course, the flowers of these plants are also providing food to their pollinators, reflecting a mutually beneficial form of symbiosis.
When we look more closely, the connections become even more complex. In relatively intact forests, trees are connected through underground fungal networks that transmit water, nutrients, and warning signals about disease and distress between trees of the same species. Such connections benefit the fungi, too, who in exchange for their services receive sugar pay-outs from the trees they support. In tropical reefs, clownfish benefit from the protection of sea anemone (due to their immunity to the animal’s poisonous cells) while feeding on small invertebrates that would otherwise harm the anemone. Meanwhile, the fecal matter of the clownfish provides nutrition to the anemone. Cows stir up insects while grazing in fields, and these insects are subsequently eaten by egrets who, unlike other species of herons, spend most of their time in cattle fields (and at the feet of cows) in order to maximize their bovine alliance.
A similar magnitude of interdependence can be observed among the physical elements of ecosystems. Waterways, climate, and weather systems also connect ecosystems around the world (and themselves depend on complex interrelated phenomena), making these natural systems inextricably linked in ways that often evade our isolated human perspectives. Even our own isolation is illusory; in reality, everything is connected, and we are no more capable of escaping such interdependence than any other species—not entirely. We are just as much dependent on the bees that pollinate our crops as we are on the farmers who plant and harvest them. The collapse of ecosystems due to climate change and the resulting impacts on human health and longevity are but small reminders of our own entanglement in natural systems. As Charles Darwin poignantly said, “Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life.” And as later affirmed by the esteemed naturalist John Muir, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
Nothing in nature exists for itself alone. Everything is related to everything else.
As social animals, we are inextricably linked to one another, too, connected and interdependent in the beginning and similarly so until the bitter end. It is in our interdependence that we may begin to find common ground, I believe, should we be willing to set aside our disagreements, see through all the lies and fear-mongering, and look to those who aim to unite us rather than divide us further. We are parts of a whole called Homo sapiens, and as such maintain a common motivational substrate—the outcome of thousands of years of evolution shaped and defined by a remarkable propensity for cooperation. Indeed, according to historical evidence, we were cooperators first and competitors second, necessitated by the advantages of group life to work together. And in so doing our propensities for love, compassion, and empathy emerged.
As universal motives are concerned, we all desire love; to love others and to be loved in return. We require community and a sense of belonging, without which we are worse off in all ways (and live shorter lives, too). With a few rare exceptions, we all maintain close ties; we support others in times of need and they support us. Kindness, love, companionship—though they may take different forms, these are the things we all seek in difficult times. Should we see past our differences, and look upon the other as an equal despite their creed, class, or orientation—and irrespective of identity—we would surely find ourselves. We would see the other in us, and us in the other, for it is our capacity for empathy that is most highly attuned as Homo sapiens. The human condition is such that we are capable of getting along despite our apparent differences, and we are most similar to one another in this very trait. Our capacity for cooperation is our common ground; it’s in our DNA.
But there are many in this world who aim to divide us, depicting humanity not as a whole but as a collection of disjointed and incompatible parts. Some attack immigrants and refugees, others target trans kids and drag queens, and some seek to limit the rights of others to health and bodily autonomy, all for the sake of their own power. Others still decry “wokeism,” as if to imply that kindness and compassion are things to be feared in this world. (As if efforts aimed at diversity and inclusion should be mocked rather than embraced.) And through it all, those who are downtrodden are burdened further, their lives made harder by those who fear change or resist progress to maintain their own privilege. But we would be wise to defend the underdog, and support those who have less, for we are them and they are us. Whatever differences appear between us are superficial at best, qualities exaggerated and reinforced but hardly differences at all, not when we look deep.
As we are embedded in nature, so too are we embedded in society, linked to one another in both cause and effect; interactive and mutually dependent parts of the same whole. The health of the society in which we live is dependent on our ability to get along and our wisdom to know hate when we see it, and resist it at every turn. Indeed, we must do more to resist that which seeks to divide us: to see the racism that underlies anti-immigrant sentiments, to fact-check the lies that fuel LGBTQ+ hate, and to denounce calls for violence and division in all forms. We must remember who we are, where we have come from, and where we find ourselves today: in a world full of other people, all connected and embedded in ways that can no longer evade our senses, for the importance of cooperation is greater now than ever before. And the value of empathy—not judgment or hate or separation—is more pressing than it’s ever been.
If we do not allow ourselves to know our common ground—by opening our hearts to those who are different and seeking truth in the face of lies and propaganda—we will learn it the hard way, as Rustin suggested. The fragmentation that becomes us will worsen and more lives will be lost, more human potential wasted. Should we have the courage to be true to ourselves, we might make it through all the conflict and division, and see a future in which we exist not as a collection of parts but as a single species, unified despite our superficial differences, and stronger still because of that unification. The natural world is such that all things are connected and driven by the same common forces, more similar in the end than they are different. And so are we parts of the same whole, connected and driven by a common ground…
Much more than the differences between us.