I am in this unnamed country for the first time. But what is so clear is that I am viewed as a "foreigner". Of course I’ve heard that word many times and used it myself now and again. But the frequent repetition of it this time has me clear about the separation it creates: us and them.
The mind embraces convenience. It is easier to clump things and people into categories than to deal with everything as distinct entities. The problem with that is "object"tivism. When we label or stereotype or categorize humans, they lose their personal nature and become objects. You in fact become an unidentified object to those lumping you in.
When we lose the ability to see people as people, it is so much easier to toss judgments at them. And negative judgments often turn to negative actions. Wars would not exist if each of "us" considered each of "them" personally.
When do I stop seeing others as persons with families and loves and losses and goals and preferences, struggles and successes, and everything else that I know make up a complex human experience? When do I trade all those marvelous intricacies of each and every some-one into a categorized "other".
How do you see the seven billion human beings who are not you or aren’t in your inner circle of known persons? What would it be like to humanize each one and have no one be a foreigner?
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