Weareall responds to our identity crisis which threatens our democracy and freedom.

The rapid dissemination of communication technology has shocked our world and challenged our sense of identity and belonging. For thousands of years we were deaf and blind to all that was out of our sight. People lived a lifetime without seeing a photo or hearing a sound of people or places near or far. Suddenly we are thrust, in real time, into an endless space inhabited by innumerable voices, billions of human identities, who have broken out of their shells and freely enter our minds. We find ourselves where humans have never been before. We are overwhelmed. We are busy interacting with infinite awarenesses that pierce our defenses. We experience challenges to our identities that cause anxiety, beyond what philosophers called existential angst. We are seeing the faults in humanity, in ourselves, and in each other. Our survival reflexes are triggered. We frantically seek to define and shield ourselves. We experience the call to action, the drive to believe in a cause, the urge to express ourselves. Unfortunately we are also developing the urge to intrude into each other’s personal domains, to judge and to condemn. Our conflicting responses generate instability that undermines our social existence, our democracy and our freedom. We are trending towards normalizing our deliberate intrusions into each other’s personal identity and mind. We need to refrain from policing, judging and targeting each other. Our doable task is to reunite on common ground based on our shared values.

We are sharing spaces where we have never been before. Our concept of privacy is shattered. Our primordial barriers that separated each person from each other are pierced. Each one of us is vulnerable and is called upon to protect ehmself. Now that we connect with each other, we need to relearn how to respect each person’s identity and privacy. This is fundamental to coexisting.

Let’s review some of the basics that we all know, so that we can continue building and cease dismantling our social and material world.

We are all human. The individual human being is the essence of who we are.

We are all inhabitants of the globe

We have a collective identity as humans.

Each of us has an individual identity.

We share our collective identity. But we cannot fully share our individual identities. To exist as a people, we need to respect and protect each person’s individual identity and affirm the basic rights of the individual. 

Weareall affirms the inalienable rights of each human being to life and liberty. This includes the right to exist as a unique, autonomous individual identity.

Our collective identity has been defined by many thinkers throughout history, and in mythologies that precede history. It is described as the vast expanse of, conscious and unconscious, physical, mental and spiritual experiences of human beings, past and present. Our collective identity helps us orient ourselves in a vast universe of phenomena. It makes it possible for us to relate, and to feel empathy for each other, so that we can truly say: “I know what you feel, I share your experience.” But it does not let us share each other’s unique self. There is so much inside each one of us, that weall do not really know.

Individual identity can be seen as the unique self. It is a sanctuary of spirit and soul that embraces the vast expanse of mental, physical, spiritual, and undefined elements, or experiences, that make up an individual human being.

The list of stereotypic and public identifiers include sex, race, religion, and nationality. Public identifiers are in the eyes of the beholder. They do not represent the unique identity of a person. But throughout history humans have been targeted based on their stereotypic identifiers. Basic threats to individual identity and freedom include ideological, religious and political indoctrination to which billions of people are subject.

Our democracy made considerable progress in separating established religious organizations from public institutions, but we are only beginning to recognize and address the negative effects of emerging secular religions (including political, social and spiritual orthodoxies) which evade our legal defenses.

There is concern that emerging secular beliefs, behaving as religions movements, are infiltrating our educational and societal institutions.  In 1949, George Orwell predicted the emergence of the thought police which monitors for thought crime and forcibly reeducates people’s minds.  Today’s technology provides unprecedented access to the individual’s private domain and raises concern that the thought police is becoming a reality. This is of particular concern in educational institutions where educators have unchecked authority over vulnerable students. We have all become vulnerable, and many Americans are concerned that thought policing and forced reeducation is becoming the norm. It is frightening that universities, academic journals, elected officials and the media, on whom we depend to uphold our democracy, are at the forefront of this assault. University faculty and newly formed organizations such as FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), invoke the principles of “academic freedom” and “free expression” as pretense for targeting individuals within schools and universities, and extending the assault to the public domain. 

At this point we need to redefine our freedoms and take on the responsibility for  protecting the individual human being from ideological intrusions.

Actionable steps.

Saying Thank You, opens our eyes to the phenomenal progress that humans have made so far. It makes us pause and recognize the “others” who made a world for us. It is the first step towards respect for the individual person.

Actionable step: Say Thank You.

Respect each others’s individual identity. Unfortunately we have started to interospect (look inside each other’s individual self and mind), to judge and to condemn each other. We are asserting the right to modify each other’s thoughts and identity.

Actionable step: Each one of us, as individuals and as members of organizations, must stop intruding into each other’s unique identity and self. Stop judging and censuring based on your personal beliefs and on perceived personal attributes and stereotypes.

Restore science. The path to continued social and scientific progress has been paved by the works of innumerable human beings, and is continuously improving. Objective and rational scientific methods aim to continually reevaluate and test the validly of our information, beliefs and policies. A group of leading scientists recently summarized the scientific approach to human progress. Adopting scientific methods is a first step to safeguarding our democracy and freedoms and protecting us from oppressive ideologies.

Actionable step: Restore scholarly discourse and the pursuit of truth in education. Replace the new faculty practice of irresponsible “free expression” that targets other humans with the practice of free but responsible expression, followed by open critical evaluation and accountability for what we say.

Restore Neutrality of Language. 

Adopt a Gender Neutral Pronoun

Language is a tool that enables communication and breaks down barriers. Language must address each human as equal, but third person pronouns divide us. At this point in history, pronoun conflicts are adversely affecting our daily lives and our democracy, and need to be resolved.

Actionable step: Adopt a gender neutral pronoun. Let each person be eh, rather than she or he.