Heroes Not Zombies

We, most of we humans, live together. Not many of us don’t have any neighbours. Many live in cities, and most of the rest live in towns, villages and hamlets. Some live in much less densely populated areas where the nearest neighbour is a field away.

But none of us live in isolation. To have power, clean water, food, housing, clothes, health care, education etc we live in societies of networks.

So here’s a fundamental paradox of human reality. We are all separate and unique, yet we are all interconnected and have shared interests and needs.

When I look at this photo I see diversity and uniqueness in a tight cluster. I zoomed in to frame this little group of dwellings because I liked the colour palate but the rest of the town where I saw these particular houses looked quite like this.

I emigrated from Scotland to France about seven years ago. I’ve felt welcomed here. My daily experience is of friendly, helpful neighbours. My learning French so we can chat to each other has, no doubt, helped.

Since coming here the U.K. government decided to “end freedom of movement”, so it’s not so easy for people to travel to and from the U.K. for fun, work, education or even love any more. There is a lot more paperwork, tough “criteria” of acceptance, and financial barriers now.

Around the world most states seem to be tightening their borders, trying to control the flow of human beings and even once accepted across the border people don’t become “citizens”, either ever, or only after a few years and certain tests.

So the people living in these houses next to each other, neighbours, or inhabitants of the same part of this world, are classed as different – nationals or foreigners.

How is that helpful?

Maybe it’s always been this way, but my impression is that division and opposition is getting worse, that societies are becoming more divided and people are becoming more angry and aggressive.

Well that’s the impression I get from the media. It’s not my daily experience which continues to be one of welcome, friendship and care.

I just wonder if it would be possible to build a society on the human values of care, acceptance, cooperation and collaboration instead of on division and competition.

It seems possible at the neighbourhood level. What if we could scale that up?