The title of this blog, and this pilot post, is: “What Unites Us?” This is the most dire question facingthe vast majority of us who genuinely want civilization and peace. But we are living in an era where the world has gone completely mad. Anyone can see that from a cursory look at the uptick in violence, tyrannical behavior, self-destructive behavior, and, worst of all, a thing called certitude. Certitude is the root of our decline into collective madness and will be the topic of a blog post coming soon.

Another threat is false animosity and division. There are many ill-intentioned individuals with ill-conceived ideas who are dividing us into warring camps. They are doing it by tricking us into buying into fictitious and harmful dichotomies. More about this in another post called Divided and Conquered.

Returning to sanity and peace depends on realizing that we human beings have a lot of common ground. This blog is about what – I think – unites the human race. It is always a work in progress and I would love to hear anyone’s contributions to it. I am not saying that we have not made progress in major areas as well. We have, and I’ll be discussing that in my blog as well. But don’t make the mistake of believing that the human race needs to become more interconnected. It already is. It has been for thousands of years. Today the human race is more interconnected and interdependent than it ever was. But interconnectedness is a double-edged sword that will lead to either greatness or destruction, depending on whether or not we end certitude.

So, to get to the point and launch this blog: What are ten of the most basic things which unite all human beings? Let’s start with the most basic physical realities and then move on to the moral things that unite us. 1) We are united by reality. We are part of a universe that exists and which has physical laws, and none of this is negotiable. Reality is a limit on all of us equally.

2) Part of our reality is human biology. We are united by biology. The human body has a variety of characteristics and needs. Every human has the same biological needs. It means that our lives are designed around the pursuit of food, safety from threats like predators and severe weather, and aroundreproduction. Biological needs have shaped our behavior and our relationships with one another for as long as modern humans have existed. Biology is in the background of every policy or issue. But in at least one way we might be divided by biology: Some ideologies reflect competition between the two biological sexes.

3) The third basic thing which unites us physically, I think, is that we share one planet, and it is the only one we have. If we ruin our atmosphere or ecosystem, or if some random event from outer space badly damages our globe, that’s it for ALL of us. We all know this. We only differ in how we respond to this reality.

4) Now, let’s bridge the physical reality with the moral. The most primary thing that unites us, I think, is this: We are united by a will to survive. I doubt this needs an explanation. All other moral imperatives are subordinate to this: they are in the service of our survival instinct. Some people have said that there is also a strong desire for existential survival as well. This is expressed in a desire to create children, to make others more like ourselves, and to leave a memorable and significant legacy of some kind before our death. 

5) One of the realities of our existence is that we are a highly interconnected world. We are united in the most literal way by Interconnectedness and interdependence. A term for this, given to us by Friedrich Hayek, is: the extended order.* Even if you want to isolate yourself from the rest of the human race – you can’t. Sharing our only planet as we do, our neighborhood effects find each other.

6) Driven by our will to survive and flourish, we are united by some basic rules of coexistence. For literally tens of thousands of years, the entire human race has engaged in experimentation in getting along with each other. By trial, error, and experience, the entire world has come to recognize these basic rules. They were not conceived by a few special individuals. They are not a product of just one corner of the world or one culture. They are not an invention. They were discovered and validated by people all over the Earth. They are rules which are logically imperative if we want to live in peace. Violating these fundamental rules leads to severe harm. This will be its own blog post.

7) We are united by rights. We human beings all have the same basic rights. They are universal. A violation of any of these rights is an attack on the person whose rights are being violated. So rule number one of peace and sanity is this: Don’t violate someone’s basic human rights.

It’s important to clarify something else here too: Because of the sloppy use of language, there is an all too popular misconception about rights: That they can somehow be taken away or be missing. No. When a right is violated, that is not an absence of that right. The right exists. The victim is merely being denied the ability to exercise a right which he or she naturally has.

8) We are united by a desire for peace. This one is not absolutely universal. It can be situational. When I say that people want peace, I am saying that generally, at most times, most people value peace very highly. A minority clearly does not value peace and prefers violence as a way of life.

Everyone has their personal threshold at which peace is not worth its cost, such as when our children are threatened by a human predator and we need to intervene with force. But even self-defense is motivated by a desire for peace. Defense comes from a will to end violent aggression. Peace is a general, normal human desire.

          9) We are united by a desire to be valued. This is pivotal to peace. Honoring that desire is the price we pay for a return to sanity.

          10) Finally, and maybe the most important common characteristic of all: We all make mistakes. Just as we are united by the ability to reason, we are united by our fallibility. We make mistakes because every single one of us always has incomplete knowledge of everything. There is never a time when someone has absolutely perfect knowledge about a topic. There are also many times when human beings act in a willfully ignorant way, even when they have enough knowledge to know better. But mistakes and ignorance have consequences, and reality doesn’t just politely alter itself to accommodate us. Reality exists outside of our minds, and it doesn’t care about us.