Inverted Sphere

There are no exact duplicates of conscious human beings. Diversity is a fact of being human. There are many things that multitudes of people have in common, and these things are typically the basis for forming community because the people are able to understand each other through what they share. There are also many things that multitudes of people don’t have in common, and these things are typically the basis for dividing community because the people do not share the same interests.

The forming and dividing of community is not inherently synonymous with good and bad effects on the community, respectively. Community organization happens through forming and dividing, so the way we carry out these acts is what determines the sustainability of our prosperity. The key to sustainable cultural prosperity is to form and divide community in a way that honors the individual as a member of our extremely diverse global community of people who all share a common value.

For a moment, imagine that the prosperity of community is a giant steel ball. The way the ball moves depends on how people communicate. If everyone honors only what makes us different, we won’t push on the ball, and it will be free to move unattended. If everyone honors only what we have in common, we will all push on the ball in different directions, and its direction will become chaotic. In either case, the ball will crush anyone in its path, killing some and wounding others, while moving out of reach or becoming too difficult to push for anyone else. We can, however, sustain the movement of the ball without it crushing people or leaving anyone behind if we work together with what we share in a way that honors our differences.

Communication is how we consciously work together, which is how culture is able to exist at all. How we work together is based on why we choose to do so. Surviving without unnecessary stress is the one thing we are all motivated by. If our communication respects this fact, then with our diverse perspectives we can affect people in a way that shares a common goal of sustaining the community’s prosperity through sustaining the prosperity of the individuals who make the community.