Planetarianism

July 10, 2022 Sociocultural Issues No Comments

Own people first. My people = everybody.

― even though human beings are not naturally made for planetarianism.

Not globalism

Globalism is mainly about making global connections to find and develop more opportunities for economic growth.

There are apparent downsides. Globalism may readily lead to even more inegalitarianism. Through globalism, poor people on the other side of the world can be exploited more efficiently. This way, people with fewer opportunities or resilience get exploited in fierce competition everywhere. They must be content with less exciting or less paying jobs, leading to burnout and dissatisfaction.

Contrary to this, planetarianism is about each individual becoming aware of the worthiness of each other individual on the planet ― no exception. This includes any child dying of hunger for food anywhere.

Planetarianism is also about the profoundly bringing together of people from different cultures.

Unity in differences

The aim is not to come to a one-size-fits-all kind of culture. On the contrary, looking at some issues from different cultural standpoints can enhance one’s possibility to look through local elements and see the deeper side. Thereby, one can more profoundly value one’s culture and work on deepening one’s cultural commitment while diversifying it to ever new combinations. There are and will probably forever remain many exciting possibilities.

The intended unity is not just the average of all together. It is also not just where cultures overlap on the surface.

Depth is crucial

People recognize real depth as being the core of their own culture. The most culturally valorized exponents frequently lie close to the core, deeply shaping the core, or even engendering the core upon which a future culture gets built. Yet, with a broadened view, people may strangely recognize the most profound level in another culture.

The most beautiful poems touch something profoundly universal while giving attention to something subtly concrete.

Close-circle empathy

This may always remain a challenge in planetarianism.

Human empathy is an outgrowth of animal empathy. The latter stands, as a matter of fact, far from planetarianism. Animal empathy is, for instance, what exists between mammalian parents and their offspring ― or at most a small group mainly of kindred. This is close-circle empathy.

In many ways, one can see this principle also in how people behave. This is valuable, but since we ‘rule the planet,’ more is needed.

Beyond close-circle empathy

In planetarianism, empathy goes much broader. One challenge is not to experience this as a zero-sum competition with the close-circle variant.

Much support is needed to open people to the new variant of empathy. In my view, this requires many close contacts – such as through social media – where, as said above, human depth is valued. There is an immense challenge involved.

In awareness of the challenge (but maybe not to the true extent), this is the aim of DailyTwinkles to Planetarianism.