If there’s one thing Americans love, it is themselves. One of the fundamental values of our political culture is individualism, which is also reflected in the consumer demand driven marketplace.
While “looking out for number 1” is a dominant theme in most of our lifestyle calculations, we aren’t all heartless selfish automatons. There’s also chauvinism, or the preference for one’s group over other groups. That’s evident in the long history of immigrant scapegoating, or even a simple comparison of the defense budget with foreign aid. While it may be natural or instinctual to privilege groups to which one belongs, we have control over the particulars. In other words, we are members of myriad groups, and can choose to focus on benefitting any number or combination of these groups.
We’ve all seen the violent results of chauvinism; exclusion occurs systematically and oppressively. It leads to racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia. We can reverse the cycle of violent exclusion without denying our instinct to preference our own.
Here it is: species consciousness.
We need to start thinking of the decisions made by the human species. We need to start thinking of costs and benefits incurred by the human species. We need to think of our species’ place in the world, and how it relates to other species. This will reduce the instinct to exclude and oppress other humans, and it will also help us realize the gravity of our decisions as a species in the context of our world as a whole. Who knows, it might actually increase international cooperation to solve global problems.
Unless we start thinking as a group, it will be extremely difficult to act as a group. Unless we act as a group, race-to-the-bottom lax regulations, driven by a drive for short-term economic gain, will always derail cooperative solutions to shared problems.
It’s hard to say how we should start thinking as a species, or getting others to. One possible in-road would be teaching others just how similar all humans are. Cultural exchange programs are a good example, but may not be enough. Education about global issues will be paramount, as it’s critical to making Americans realize that we all share the same basic problems.
