Posts Tagged ‘outgroup’

Embracing a Global Village Paradigm

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

As we move forward into a new age of world peace, where cooperation takes precedence over conflict, a small yet significant change will take place in the psyches of many people on earth. This change will be in our own personal identity… in the way that we perceive our role in the world.

Being part of One World, the Global Tribe, the World’s Community, means we’ve undergone an expansion to our own identity. We now view our selves as members of the Global Village. We see ourselves as part of the human species, one with all others sharing this giant ball of matter as it hurls through space.

As we grow to accept this global paradigm, being one of the world’s people becomes one more notch in our own personal identity. Along with all the other ways we may identify ourselves – our music taste, our hobbies, our sports interests or favorite sports teams, our heritage, our nationality, our fashion style, our occupation, our education – we also recognize the fact that we are human from planet earth.

While it is just a small step, just one more way of looking at ourselves, it has huge ramifications for our world. As we expand our identity to include being a member of the global village, something remarkable happens: every other human on earth inherently becomes, on some level, part of our own group, part of our own extended family, part of us. So, these people who were once strangers, who were once part of the “Out-group”, part of “them”, “they”, “the outsiders”, now shifts to be part of the “in-group”, part of “us”, “we”, our side.

Now, this doesn’t mean we need to immediately sacrifice ourselves for our new extended family, or really change our behavior dramatically. But what does happen is that number of outside threats, the number of enemies in the world, suddenly drops dramatically. The world isn’t so scary, anymore, as our common humanity reveals itself.

This way, we can move forward into a new age, building trust, building channels of communication, building stronger and larger communities… all of which will be instrumental in the formation of a world of peace.

If you are interested in learning more about the shift to a global village mentality, please look into the fine work of the Global Oneness Project, and their latest campaign about expanding identities.