#Human interdependence

[wickedzeevyln]

You've Got a Friend

Recall a moment when a friend’s call or text made you smile unexpectedly. Think back on how you feel when you share laughter, secrets, and stories with those you cherish. Sometimes it’s the interactions we have that make coffee taste than it actually does. Or leisure walks we have in the park. Or the countless hours we spend on our phones while chatting with someone across the planet There is…

[gnnosis]

what we owe to each other

[ the good place, 2x13 / the overstory, richard powers / unknown / “don’t carry it all,” the decemberists / thoodleoo ]

[philosophybits]

When we say that one object is connected with another, we mean only that they have acquired a connection in our thought, and give rise to this inference, by which they become proofs of each other's existence: A conclusion which is somewhat extraordinary, but which seems founded on sufficient evidence.

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

[poligraf]

The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together.

— Robin Wall Kimmerer

[unwelcome-ozian]

[that-gay-jedi]

For all that I love living alone because of the peace and quiet and never having to worry abt whether a roommate is gonna be trustworthy etc, when I'm totally overcome with The Weakness(tm) from one of my illnesses I direly wish there were someone around to refill my water bottle, turn off the lights and bring me a blanket/sweater or adjust the thermostat. My cat is a great comfort, but she doesn't have opposable thumbs.

I can very suddenly go from simply tired to a state wherein no matter how uncomfortable I am or how important a task, I can't move. I hope I would be able to crawl across the floor if the building were on fire, but I pray to the gods that I never have to find out. Knowing that if that happened there'd be someone else to grab my cat and either help me drag myself out or tell the first responders about my sorry ass would take a weight off my mind.

Truthfully, I don't even think most humans are for lack of a better word "supposed" to live alone. We're a hypersocial species adapted to live in mutually caring communities where people allow each other enough autonomy and space that we aren't desperate to escape, with vast formal or informal support networks wherein everyone's contributions are valued and everyone's needs are seen as simply a part of life instead of some kind of moral failing.

But I don't have that kind of community and so far, total solitude has been preferable to the family and roommates I've had. Out of the choices available to me, I'd rather sometimes have to crumple up on my couch feeling thirsty and cold and unable to fully shut the light out of my eyes than deal with people who are violent or exploitative or who don't believe my limitations are real etc etc.

[apenitentialprayer]

You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members[.]

Pope Francis, in his 2015 Address to the Congress of the United States

[majaurukalo]

We should really rethink the phrasing “being a burden”. And I don’t mean in a sweet-flowery way/soft talking to hide a harsh reality like “no, you are not a burden. You just have different needs”.

Because we are a burden. All human beings.

We are a burden on the planet and the ecosystem, for starters.

And we are a burden on one another.

Unless you live alone on an island and grow your own food and build your own stuff then you are a burden to someone or something in order to have your needs met.

We all take up space and time and energy from someone else.

That’s how we can survive as a society, as a community of people who live in interdependency with one another.

You need to buy food so you go to a supermarket who someone else put up so it can be easier for you to have access to food and someone else has made possible for you to have your salad or your bacon or your apple.

You live in a house that someone else built for you.

You enjoy a piece of art that someone else created for your enjoyment.

We rely on other people for food, housing, clothing, even entertainment.

And some of us rely on other people for showering, eating, going out, etc..

The Western society teaches that only through self-achievement and personal labour we are valuable and worthy of praise. That’s a toxic mindset that we must unlearn because it’s bound to fail in the long run.

Even our dreams and goals can only happen if we rely on someone else’s work, time and effort.

You want to be a singer? So you write a song. Sure, this comes out from your own effort and talent but then you need to publish it so you go on Bandcamp or Soundcloud. But those platforms exist because someone else built them. Then there are people, your audience, who listen to your song and share it. You rely on them. A record label signs you? That’s other people you are relying on to make your dream come true.

Nothing in this World is achievable through individualism and single effort.

At the end of the day we are tired from all this interdependencing but we also feel more connected and satisfied and even wiser.

Once we understand this we can see as a total “normal” thing the reliance on someone else for the completion of daily tasks.

The “I’d kill myself if I had to have my ass cleaned by someone else” will become nonsense.

And you can tell me that doing music is not like wiping someone else’s ass but both things are products of human labour and we all should learn to put aside our egos and be more humble and compassionate.

And since we all can end up having to have our asses be wiped by someone else maybe you can change your attitude as a gift to yourself. Or someone you love.

(Or maybe I’m just naive. I don’t know. I wish there was more empathy and connection among humans instead od selfishness and egotism).

[eelhound]

"If human societies are not simply aggregations of isolated individuals who come together to truck and barter, how then shall we conceptualize society? It’s [...] worth questioning the very idea of the self-sovereign individual. We are not born as sovereign individual agents even though of course we have certain capacities and scope for self-determination. We are, rather, creatures whose personal development and flourishing requires that we be nested within social and intergenerational collectives. We are actually 'Nested-I’s.'

As evolutionary scientists like E.O. Wilson, David Sloan Wilson, and Martin Nowak have argued, group selection is a more influential force than individual selection in evolution. Collective social structures profoundly influence and constrain our individuality. Biologically speaking, it is even a bit difficult to talk about 'individuals' as if they were separate from 'nature.' Human beings could not function without millions of bacteria living in their guts, or without being immersed within a biodiverse ecosystem of living organisms. Yet much of economics remains locked into the mindset of atomistic, acquisitiveness individuals engaged in mechanical, cause-and-effect transactions in the service of capital accumulation. There is relatively little attention to the holistic, dynamic, non-linear dimensions of living systems. The notions of human aliveness and nonmarket values are scanted.

The idea of 'rational self-interest' is now so thoroughly embedded in modern life that the ontological frame is considered self-evident. However, as economists Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis show in their book A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution, human beings have a rich evolutionary history of developing social systems and institutions to support 'strong reciprocity' and collective interests. The significant work of the late Elinor Ostrom, too, helped demonstrate the profound importance of social collaboration as a powerful economic force. Alas, despite her receiving the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009 for her pioneering work, the discipline has not really embraced her perspectives more fully.

This is a shame. Ostrom’s work has been a bellwether for many social movements that reject the stunted social vision and imagination of standard economics. In my own work as a commons scholar, I have seen scores of self-organized commons function extremely well. They use peer-governance and -provisioning to give people greater control over their lives, and in more satisfying, humane ways than labor markets. One need only look to such phenomena as open-source software, cosmo-local production (globally shared design knowledge + local physical production), open-access scientific publishing, data commons, WiFi and civic infrastructures managed as commons, cooperatives, community land trusts, community-supported agriculture, agroecology, indigenous land stewardship, cohousing, participatory budgeting in government, and much else."

- David Bollier, from "My Advice to an Aspiring Economist: Don’t Be an Economist." Evonomics, 21 January 2021.

[turiyatitta]

The Dawn of Syncretic Souls

[healerinchief]

Nature is greater than us, therefore we must learn from Nature AND co-operate with Nature.

It has taken Nature centuries upon centuries to evolve to Its current state of being. Nature has immutable Laws, in order to maintain balance and continue to Evolve.

We humans, are Nature's highest known creation to date. We are the only expression of Nature that must choose to co-operate with Nature and we also have the unique ability to choose to oppose Nature.

We have the power to willfully contribute to sustaining Nature's balance for centuries to come, so that we (and Its other creations) can continue to flourish... by choosing to learn from and co-operate with Nature.

We also have the power to destroy Nature's balance (including destroying our own species), in an instant... through our ignorance, stubbornness, and refusal to honor and work with Nature.

The only way to sustain Nature's balance and our life here on this planet (our only sustainable Home), is by learning from Nature and by co-operating with Nature... not by forcing our wills upon Nature.

Nature doesn't care if we don't know Its laws or agree with them. That is why Natural Laws are immutable.

Infinite Nature doesn’t need us finite humans to continue to exist and thrive... yet we need to co-operate with and support Nature in order to continue to exist and thrive.

Nature can overcome anything. We humans, when working individually (and together) with Nature, have the ability to do the same.. but we must consciously, consistently, and perpetually choose to do so with each thought, word, and action we allow ourselves to express.

The time to choose Life and sustainability is NOW.

Please share if you agree. Thank you. 💚

[sheilamurrey]

none lives by himself alone

Silver Birch was a spirit guide who spoke through Maurice Barbanellnone lives by himself alone

[drdemonprince]

just like going through the members of my family and my friend groups one by one, i can't think a single damn person i know who does not have a disability. ARFID. Autism. Metal rod in the spine. Arthritis. Cancer in remission. Long-term effects of repeated concussions. Bad back. Exhaustion. Crohn's. EDS. More Autism and ADHD. Migraines. Periods that lay them out for a week. Chronic depression. Alcoholism. Bipolar. Cataracts.

I do not know a single person who is not disabled, typically in multiple ways, and we all face increased disability as a natural consequence of aging. Literally every person on the planet becomes disabled on a long enough timeline. Yet we still talk about disability and organize around it as if it isn't social, economic, and contextual. people treat disability as an innate quality that some people have and some people do not have, and as if there is some large class of intrinsically abled people who are benefiting under capitalism and are withholding the fruits of their abilities from us or something.

i saw this post on twitter months ago that was like "I need people to understand that if you are in a relationship with a disabled person you are going to have to do more than them. you're not disabled and so you're going to have to do more of the work (around the house, logisticially, etc). that is what you owe them as an abled person."

and it just baffled me. because i have only ever seen disabled people in relationships with other disabled people, caring for one another in a stitched-together, messy web of interdependence and missed deadlines and dirty dishes and acceptance and love, not because disabled people are ontologically more generous than non-disabled people but because non-disabled people don't even actually exist.

the mythological abled person who can work a full time job, keep a clean home, do all the dishes, buy all the groceries, cook all the meals, run all the errands, stay on top of all the bills, carry everything, dash up the stairs, stand on their feet for hours, and have boundless energy without any mental consequences to that does not exist. it's an ideal created to oppress us all. it is an impossible standard the reification of which disables us all.

there is no one on this planet who is not disabled under capitalism and colonialism. there are only people who lack the class consciousness to recognize that they're disabled.

it's gonna have to be us taking care of one another. it's going to be the disabled caring for the disabled. it always will be that. that is the human condition.

[kadampalife]

Everything Everywhere All At Once

I like starting my meditations by remembering impermanence ‘cos it focuses my mind very efficiently. First I ask myself: “If I die today, where will I be tomorrow?” Or where do I WANT to be tomorrow? That straightens me out because, if I die today, I would like to be in the Pure Land tomorrow, so getting there has to be a priority today. Then I think about how I’ve had countless lives and, like…

[poligraf]

The most important thing each of us can know is our unique gift and how to use it in the world. Individuality is cherished and nurtured, because, in order for the whole to flourish, each of us has to be strong in who we are and carry our gifts with conviction, so they can be shared with others.

— Robin Wall Kimmerer

[kin-olgum]

📚 etymology 📚 . Did you know that “free” originally comes from a Proto-indo-european word that means “to love”…? . So, to love means to be free. Being free means being able to open your life wide enough to let someone in and really bond with them. If you seek freedom, allow yourself to love. This is the real freedom. . But in order to be able to love another person, there’s someone you need to love first: yourself. Without this kind of love, you can’t unlock any other kinds of love, for anybody. . I learned how to love myself. And to me it meant to nurture my inner child. This archaic creature inside of me who thinks she’s a prey. Who’s constantly afraid because everything and everyone is a threat to her. . I had to teach her, that there’s nothing to be afraid of. I had to tell her that I got her. That she’s safe. And that no matter what happens, we’ll figure something out. I had to tell this child everything that no one told me when I was as vulnerable and dependent as she is. And it’s by doing so, that I came out of dependency, that I became autonomous. That I started to love myself, and therefore, to be able to love others. . The opposite of dependent is not independent. It’s autonomous. Because we’re all INTERdependent. We need each others. And I need to be autonomous, in order to let myself be interdependent with others, let them help me. Let them love me. Let them in. Let them share my life. I need to love other people to be able to love myself, to be able to love others. ♻️ And to open my life to them, fearlessly. And since then, I’ve been free. . #freedom #etymology #protoindoeuropean #language #InOrigineLiesTruth #origin #free #selfhelp #psychology #love #openup #letpeoplein #bevulnerable #autonomous #interdependent #humans #behuman #WhatItMeansToBeHuman #humantribe #psycho #liberte #libre #amour #selflove #loveyourself #lovethyself #lovethyneighbor #lovethyneighborasthyself ❤️ https://www.instagram.com/p/CjxMa86rIN6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=