Thoughts about humanity

Chapter 1: a human vision

I am fearful.

I don’t know how I could ever live in a world like this with a sense of safety and ease.

Nationalism is really so wrong in my eyes. 

The fact that it actually matters to people, and that people don’t see through its lies, depresses me, scares me.

There isn’t a single country that isn’t deeply connected to the countries around it, and that very fact makes the idea of a country or a nation seem very vapid to me. And the fact that people fight over it, hate over it, or love because of it feels really wrong to me.

The fact that so many people think there is an essential difference between women and men really disturbs me. Not that there arent biological differences, but that people see such biological differences as something that affects the essence of who a person is.

The boundaries people draw in sexuality between gay and straight also seem ridiculous to me. 

Boundaries people draw between so called “races” seem to me to be so superficial and hold no real ground whatsoever.

It bothers me that people think the political left or right is “the way,” when it’s so clear to me that both are missing the truth, or seeing only one side of it and thinking it’s the whole thing.

When people think things like nationalism, gender, sexuality, “race,” or politics are more important than the individual you are—it is so wrong and dangerous in my eyes. The idea that these things are essentially tied to who you are as an individual disturbs me. The way i see it, the only way these things affect who you are is through the brainwashing imposed on individuals, which ties these definitions and their false ideals to your identity. It feels like we’re put in a prison of false definitions.

How can things like this dictate human society? How can I keep believing in humanity? I need to believe in humanity, otherwise I’ll live in complete isolation.

I feel this brainwashing in myself and in others, and I see how much suffering it creates. Only suffering.

How long can humanity continue to suffer from a combination of trauma and brainwashing?

We are not allowed to be human—the very concept of “human” has become one big lie. I feel completely lost in all of this. How can you not feel lost in this endless maze of lies?

I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed of how much this disturbs me, and I’m ashamed to be human. And I’m ashamed of being ashamed of it.

The responsibility is human. Every war is a civil war. Ethnicity is also fundamentally human in general—even on a non-political level, we are one people. Always.

In my view there is no justification for any state based on nationalism.

The only kind of state I think could be justified is a state for its citizens—as individuals, not as a people based on some ethnicity that is never as unique as it’s made out to be. Because ethnicity isn’t really such a unique thing. Our humanity, in itself, makes all cultures in the world one culture in my eyes. There are customs that seem a bit different in different parts of the world, but does that really make a human group into a separate nation? In my view, absolutely not. There is no human group so uniquely special that it deserves the title of a distinct people. Not in my view.

I think that in a better world, we would celebrate the small differences between us, as individuals and societies, instead of turning those differences into a reason for separation.

We have to make sure that fears and anger don't turn into hatred. The moment fear and anger become hate, we lose our purest conscience.

We have to hold on to the belief that humanity is one family, with all its many shades, and with all the conflicts — we are all people before everything and after everything, and that brings us closer and connects us more than any reality we create or story we can tell.

I feel threatened by most people because I’m afraid that most people don’t see that fraternity, or give up on it because we’re taught that it’s not realistic, even though it’s reality itself — and the illusion is the separatness.

Every person lives their own personal experience, but we are all made of the same matter, and in a very similar way, which makes the personal experience universal and of humanity at large— and at the same time unique and individual.

Race

Nation

Sex

Sexual preference

There is no real basis for the grouping of individuals based on such superficial characteristics being more important in our societies than our shared human core.

Because there is no clear divide between such definitions, other than the ones we give some ideal generalised meaning to. 

We are taught to see ourselves as belonging to such groupings more than we are to our truest grouping, humanity at large. 

The world categorizes us, and that categorization, based on superficial generalization, is what matters.

It seems society today often forgets, disregards or pays much less importance to, is the only thing that truly has a deep meaning—that we are human. 

What matters most is the individual we are and the individuals in our lives, the humans we are and are surrounded with and close to. As individuals and humans. 

Say a country, a nation, a race, a sex or sexual attraction, grouping such vast amounts of people who don't know each other personally, based on some fictional idealised vision of something that connects them and separates them from others, is something devoid of any true meaning. 

When one talks about a personal group such as a family or a group of friends, one can look and say something is unique about such a group. Because it actually says something about individual people, and not some ideal about a nation, race or sex. 

On the individual level one can find endless diversity in how we live and experience life and how we see the world and interact with others. No two of us are the same, because there literally is no other person who is you, yet we all share our core with all other humans, being literally the same type of animal in any possible way. We are literally a family, physically, and come from the same underlying tribe, culturally, and culture and our very bodies are something deeply interconnected. 

We are human before everything and after everything and in between.

We all do share the same basic feelings, the same core needs and wants and thoughts and senses.

We all need sustenance and shelter. 

We all have and are bodies which follow the same core build. 

We all have a need for some sort of interaction with others, and we all need intimacy and connection, even though some of us give up on finding it. 

We all need to experience and express things. 

We all experience highs and lows in our moods. 

We all struggle with expectations. 

We all want to achieve something, no matter how small or large. 

We all have anger, sadness, joy, fear, excitement, bitterness, nostalgia, loneliness, longing, confusion, curiosity, anxiety, disappointment, expectation, boredom, desire, envy, distress, relaxation, restlessness, fulfillment and being unfulfilled.

I believe we all want to be good to others as well as oneself even if some of us lose the connection with such dispositions.

People always say we are selfish beings, but I believe that if that's true, most if not all of us have a space for others within our selfishness. Our selfishness includes others as an integral part of us, and we must remember that. 

This assertion comes from the fact that humans are very social creatures, and need a community to survive, so it is only natural that our natural disposition would be not a completely selfish one.

Some of us want to harm others or themselves or both, but i believe that such desires come from trauma, which should and can be healed. We all carry trauma in many ways. We all deal with our trauma in many different ways. 

I believe humans carry trauma from our ape ancestors, all the way through to the modern day, and we must find ways of healing our ancestral trauma, i think mostly through education, the way we raise our young.

And all cultures share the same core. They all are a way that humans found to survive and thrive. They are all built on some form of a community, which at its core is the familial unit. All cultures are an education on how to be able to live in this world. Humans are social animals who need humans to survive. And the culture is the way of educating on what to do and not do and how. This is the basis for what culture is, culture is a way of raising humans as well as a way of living as a community. 

Conveying information as well as a way of bringing people together, to survive and thrive.

All human cultures have many ways of conveying the information of how to survive, and have the communal aspect at their core.

All have some form of hierarchy which is based on the hierarchy within a family. 

The parents and their children. Those with the knowledge of how to survive and those learning it. And all humanity found core ways of surviving and educating which are universal. 

Humans found their own way of communicating which is accurate to a very high degree, Language. Which in all its forms is symbolic. Whether using sounds or movement or some form of actual physical symbols. 

Human use symbols to define their existence in order to survive better. And such symbols rely on our shared senses for communication. Passing on knowledge is a key to our existence as a species. what we can and cannot eat, how to get our food and where. How to live in a community, and deal with the hardships we face as human beings. 

Culture is a set of values and beliefs and social practices, the way people think, create meaning and relate to one another in the world.

All cultures have a form of art as well, and the same forms, almost as one underlying form. Music, dance, language, some form of architecture, fashion and visual art. Art is the way people found to convey their ideas and feelings as well as come together as a community.

Religion, history, bureaucracy, commerce, science and art were all once part of the same whole which was culture.

We have many colors and endless shades, but all of them are humanity itself.

We are divided by religion, race, gender, sexuality, and nationality, and I see this as nothing less than an ongoing psychosis when we place excessive and unnecessary emphasis on these divisions, locking ourselves into a prison of false definitions.

Let us be human first and before and after everything, because that is what we are and that is what truly matters.

And as human beings, we want to live well with ourselves and with those around us.

Let us do beautiful and meaningful things, things that are good for us and for others.

Let us take care of ourselves and of others. As individuals.

People with actual influence over the world have a responsibility to give humanity the sense of fraternity which is our truth,

while letting all our wondrous diversity flourish.

I wish people would look into their trauma, and heal it.

Art is probably the best way.

I wish the people of the world would stand together against violence—

find its roots, and heal it with tenderness.

We can all live in peace together on this earth, and share what we have.

It is a dream which is more real than any ideal.

And it gives me much sorrow, because it is so far away from what is actually happening to our world.

But it is the only sane thing I can think about.

The only thing I can truly feel.

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What is me?

Who am I?

What exactly am I?

I don’t know.

I don’t think I, or any other individual, can—or should—be defined.

If I must define myself in any way, it would probably be as

“just a human being from planet Earth.”

And that is the only definition I would, only if I must, give any other human as well—

and fully stand by it.

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As much as I believe in the freedom and safety of all people,

and in our great human diversity—

I personally do not represent anything,

and do not want to represent anything,

other than the many things I share with all other humans,

and at the same time, just the small part of humanity that I happen to be—

as an individual.

Not as an ideal.

Not as a representative of any generalized faction within humanity.

Just who I am:

with all my beauty and ugliness, my perfections and imperfections, my vices and my virtues,

my wisdom and my stupidity, my powers and my weaknesses—

regardless of my sex, race, ethnicity, or sexual preference.

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Every individual in the world, to me, represents humanity in two ways:

through what they share with all others,

and through the unique piece of humanity that only they hold.

I believe all of us humans share most of what we are—

and yet, no two of us are the same.

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When one’s sense of inadequacy is amplified—

by others, and then naturally by oneself—

it creates a gap inside.

A gap between who one is, and who one wishes to be.

An ideal self, hovering “above” the present self.

Unless that gap is addressed—

filled in by the self, from within—

it remains always above,

no matter how high one climbs.

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I believe many people try to fill that gap by identifying with a group—

race, sex, community, nation—

to feel like they belong. to feel meaning. 

But it can also be filled in a much healthier way:

by doing what one loves.

By creating something that lives outside oneself.

By cultivating something meaningful in the world.

Sometimes it’s easier to grow yourself

by growing something outside you.

Chapter 2: Identity, Labels

Like most people, I was—and still am—constantly labeled, judged, put down and appreciated for all sorts of ideals that others think I belong to:

Being a straight, white, Jewish, Israeli, British, English, leftist, agnostic, bilingual, man, or whatever.

Society brainwashes and manipulates many people into deeply believing and following such definitions.

That is, for me, a sad and dangerous fact.

All such definitions don’t mean anything to me personally.

I actually see them as different forms of social constructs, lies, divisions, senseless generalisations—shallow, mostly invented factions within humanity.

These identities are all based on dividing humanity into groups, usually through exaggerated, invented, or superficial characteristics, and a story to match.

Usually these divisions rely on stereotypes.

The only generalisations that hold true—without exceptions—are the ones based on what all humans share.

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Take “man and woman,” for instance.

I see those definitions as nothing more than social constructs, roles appointed by humans, not nature.

They carry a load of stereotypes and prejudice, conventionally assigned according to biological sex—

and seen as opposites, wrongfully in my opinion.

When a baby is born, they’re given a role—

female means more feminine,

male means more masculine.

“Feminine” is traditionally defined as receptive, embracing, weak, soft, emotional, following, accepting, dependent, forgiving, oppressed, sensitive, sexually submissive, homebound.

“Masculine” is traditionally defined as assertive, dominant, oppressive, strong, leading, aggressive, mind-driven, hard, sexually conquering, hunting-bound.

Those definitions, to me, are completely false.

They are, in actuality, rubbish.

All these traits can be found in people of any sex, regardless of their biology.

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Sex does matter biologically—

in medicine, or reproduction.

But beyond that, the implications of sex are too fluid, too individual, and not clear-cut at all.

Especially when it comes to gender roles, which are entirely cultural and assigned based on outdated ideas.

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The same applies to race.

This idea of “race” is, in my view, a dangerously misleading and redundant concept.

If what fundamentally matters to someone is skin colour or facial features—

that, to me, is completely absurd.

People have suffered, or been favoured, simply for how they look.

Not only racially—just based on visual appearance.

And that, to me, is disgusting.

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Nationalism is just another exaggerated way of creating human division.

It tries to invent a unique, separated “people,” and claim they have their own distinct culture.

But all cultures are fundamentally connected—

in origin, in structure, and in spirit.

Nationalism attempts to create unity and pride, but only based on a mostly invented idealised grouping of people.

And it often builds a hero-victim mentality alongside it.

None of it can honestly apply to any human group smaller than humanity as a whole.

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What feels wrong to me about nationalism

is that it presents itself as rooted in a specific people and culture—

when in fact, no group truly originates from a single place.

Cultures always develop in contact with neighbouring peoples, and their cultures—

and sometimes even with distant ones, especially in the modern world.

If one insists on upholding nationalism,

the only way to do so truthfully is to admit it’s based on fiction.

A mostly imaginary story.

A romanticised grouping of people.

Chapter 3: Culture Is One

All of us humans, in our essence—

when treated and raised as such, and truly accepted—

are powerful and sensitive, gentle and strong beings.

We can all feel that.

Ourselves.

Love.

Within us.

And no one can take that away.

Many try.

There is a lot of brainwashing, manipulation, confusion, and suffering.

Yet we are always that love.

And we can all come back to it, whenever, wherever we are.

Let us please start appreciating it.

Embracing ourselves.

Each other.

Each one of us, by themselves.

All of us together.

That is the only truth I am really certain exists.

Almost all other things are lies that influence reality.

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I think the only generalisations that somehow hold water are those about humans at large—

never really about specific groups, whether biological or cultural.

And even those are just generalisations.

There are always so many exceptions.

I see no borders, at all.

I see gradualism in everything.

I see oneness in everything—

including human cultures, as being really one big underlying culture.

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Probably the core of my worldview is this:

There is reality, which exists outside of us living beings, and which includes us.

We are physically made of it, and part of it.

And then there are ideals—

which are ideas, thoughts that we humans create.

They exist as thoughts.

We project them onto reality and try to understand the world through them.

But many of these ideals are not based on reality—

or they distort it, by exaggerating one aspect while ignoring the whole.

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When a person sees things as gradual, without clear-cut borders between groups,

they start to move past the categorized screen we’re all raised inside—

the one forced onto us before we even know it’s happening.

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An important part of understanding existence is perspective.

Metaphorically speaking, when we see from a higher point of view,

we can better grasp the whole terrain.

In this case, the terrain is humanity.

And from that view, the similarities become clearer than the differences.

But this metaphor can also go deeper—

because when you look beneath the surface of cultures,

you see the same structures, the same yearnings, the same human stories.

The details—the “decorations”—vary,

but the foundation is shared.

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If you zoom out,

what once seemed like the whole picture becomes just one small part of something bigger.

And that something is part of something bigger still.

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I think nationalism, racism, sexism, straightism or gayism, classism, and also left-wing and right-wing agendas—

or being religious or atheist—

don’t reflect the actual truth of human existence.

They are used to brainwash people, divide them, and make them obedient.

They create tribes and identities based on almost nothing real.

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The only things I see as truly worthy of pride are these:

Who you are as an individual.

Your own actions and creations.

And your connection to humanity as a whole.

I see you, me, and everyone else as part of the same human heritage.

We all come from the same origin.

We are part of the same living story.

This heritage is in our bodies, our senses, our minds.

It is also cultural—spanning every human tradition, crossing every imaginary border.

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People like Shakespeare, Rumi, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Gandhi, Spinoza, Virginia Woolf, Harvey Milk, and Martin Luther King—

they are not the property of one culture.

They are shared human heritage.

And so are Genghis Khan, Hernán Cortés, Queen Victoria, Louis XVI, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Leopold II of Belgium—

though tragically so.

The fact that I am English doesn’t make Shakespeare more “mine” than anyone else’s.

What makes him “yours” is whether you read him, felt him, were influenced by him.

That’s all.

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The idea of “cultural appropriation” is, to me, ridiculous.

Do we really expect a person of African ancestry not to wear a kimono?

Or a so-called white man not to dance salsa?

Or an East Asian woman not to have dreadlocks?

Or a Jew not to eat a kebab?

Seriously—

isn’t being human enough

to allow us to love, learn, express, and create from any culture?

The fact that people are shamed for this breaks my heart.

And it angers me.

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Culture is a tapestry, not a grid.

There are no clear lines where one ends and another begins.

It’s a rainbow.

And just like in a rainbow, there is no place where one color ends and another begins.

Only our naming makes it so.

Whenever we define something too rigidly, we distort it.

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Chapter 4: Childhood, Disillusionment, and the Longing for Wholeness

As a kid, I used to just love the whole world—

or at least, the experience of being in it.

I grew up loving food and music and art and people.

Nature too.

It was all one.

It was beautiful.

And I loved all of it.

I didn’t see myself as different from my sisters because I was male.

It didn’t matter where the food or music came from, or what culture it “belonged” to.

I just loved the thing itself.

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As I grew older, I began to see that people care deeply about the origins of things—

about cultural ownership.

That people treat you differently if you’re male or female.

Suddenly, such things started to matter to others.

And through them, to me.

That made me sad.

Because I had never believed those were the things that truly mattered.

What mattered to me was the music itself.

The food itself.

That I am human—

not male, or a member of some nation or identity.

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As a teenager—maybe even earlier—

I began to feel how divided human cultures really are.

The world I loved so dearly

wasn’t, it turned out, for everyone.

Each group had their own share of it.

Their own rights to it.

Their own slice.

That broke my heart.

It shattered the wholeness I had felt.

And so, I tried to find beauty within the few specific places I was told I “belonged” to.

I started looking for meaning in the cultures I was born into.

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That developed into a kind of pride—

feeling connected to Jewish culture and history, and to English culture too.

As if those traditions, those lineages, were part of me.

As if they made me better.

As if I had a right to own them—because I was “one of them.”

After all, those were the only traditions I was allowed to claim.

The ones people accepted I could identify with.

People around me saw world cultures as divided.

They divided people accordingly.

So I tried to find myself inside those borders.

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But the more I learned—about people, about cultures, about history—

the more I saw how wrong those borders were.

At first I found many perspectives, affiliations, beliefs.

But as I looked deeper into the details of each culture,

and the way cultures have always influenced one another,

I felt a growing sense of something underneath it all:

A shared origin.

A quiet oneness.

A human foundation.

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Cultures, I realized, change slowly—gradually—from region to region.

The details shift.

The decorations vary.

But the core remains.

That shared humanity is there.

In all of it.

Even across continents.

We all originate from the same place, the same culture, and we all still carry it with us wherever whoever we are.

Trade routes, empires, migrations—

they all deepened the interconnection.

And in the modern world—through printing, television, internet, and social media—

we’ve woven even more tightly together.

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Chapter 5: One Human History, Many Forms

Our human story goes all the way back—

to our ape, monkey, primitive mammal, reptile, amphibian, and fish ancestors.

And before that—just non-living matter.

Not dead matter—because “dead” implies it was once alive—

just matter.

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Modern society teaches us to feel separate.

To believe in a uniqueness that overrides everything else.

We are told we are individuals.

And at the same time, we are told we are members of a specific ethnic group.

That this affiliation is crucial.

But once I truly studied ethnic groups, their backstories, and the cultures they claim as uniquely theirs,

I started to see something completely different:

What they call their “unique culture”

is always just a variation on something broader.

Something shared.

No culture exists in a vacuum.

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We are all part of one underlying, human culture.

It’s expressed in endless ways—

but the essence is the same.

All those so-called differences—between class, sex, sexuality, race, nations, and traditions—

are based, at best, on exaggerations and distortions.

At worst, on complete lies.

Whether based on manipulated facts or entirely fictional ideals,

these divisions are not truth.

And it angers me how deeply people are manipulated into believing them.

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I’m not saying this from a place of superiority.

I’ve been fed these same ideas since childhood.

But I grew out of blindly believing them.

And when I do find myself generalising others,

I stop myself.

Immediately.

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No modern nation, and no ancient people, ever existed in true isolation.

For thousands of years, this world has been interconnected.

Every nation contains many cultural regiorns.

And neighbouring nations share so much.

The boundaries between them are rarely real.

Cultures change gradually, not abruptly.

Together, we form one great human tapestry.

One carpet of culture, endlessly diverse in style and detail.

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We humans all lived in Africa—

until about 60,000 years ago,

when some of us began to spread out across the planet.

The fact that all our cultures originate from a relatively small area,

and that we were based there for most of our shared history,

is something many people take for granted.

But it’s deeply important.

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From my experience—

visiting different cultures,

growing up in a multicultural family,

and living between two very different countries—

as well as through studying the art of cultures from all over the world,

especially their music—

I’ve come to see something clearly:

The more I explore, the more similarities I find.

Not just on the surface—

but in the core.

The fundamental forms.

The structures.

The needs and longings.

The values that run through words, rhythm, rituals, architecture, movement.

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Over the years, I’ve met many different people.

And always—always—

what I see at the core is more alike than different.

Yes, there are stylistic differences.

Yes, there are variations of detail.

But even those cross and blend between cultures—

especially neighbouring ones.

Even distant ones share deep similarities—

because at their root, they’re all human.

Because we are all built the same way.

Because we need the same things.

Because we long, and hurt, and love, and imagine, and create,

in ways that echo across every land.

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Chapter 7: Folk Music Knows No Borders

It’s a well-known fact that across the globe,

human music—songs, dance tunes, rituals, forms of expression—

shares many of the same basic patterns.

Key structures.

Rhythms.

Themes found in lyrics.

Especially when it comes to folk music.

And ironically, it’s folk music that people usually point to as “proof” of a specific national identity.

But in truth, folk music isn’t national.

It’s regional.

It varies from village to village—

and it doesn’t change abruptly when you cross a border.

Not even a political one.

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The musical traditions of southeastern France, for example,

are closely connected to those of northwestern Italy.

And in places where nationalism runs high—

take Ireland and England—

you can still hear the deep musical kinship between them.

English traditional folk dance music, written down hundreds of years ago,

has obvious links to Irish and Scottish tunes—

even to Scandinavian and French traditions.

And these, in turn, connect to eastern European music—

Polish and Ukrainian folk music—

which shares elements with Balkan traditions,

which themselves share elements with the Middle East.

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English country dances from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries,

rooted in earlier French dance forms,

gave rise to French “contra dance,”

which then influenced Latin American music and dance.

This chain of influence stretches across oceans.

It’s all connected.

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The same holds true for the musical heritage of Turkey and Greece,

two nations divided by politics and pride—

you find one shared musical heritage.

This kind of cross-cultural similarity is everywhere.

The music of western europe, cant be seperated from the music of eastern europe, which in turn cannot be seperated from the music of the middle east, which is deeply connected to north african music and persian and central Asian music, which cannot be seperated from the music of the indian subcontinent, which is closely connected to southeast asian music, which is closely tied to east asian music.

North African music in turn is connected to southern european music, and central african music., which is connected to east, West and southern African music.

African as well as European music making the bedrock of most modern musical forms in the americas.

etc.

Each of these can be seen as a musical “sphere”—

with gradual, never abrupt, transitions between styles and regions.

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Even in the modern world,

where genres are supposedly more defined—

jazz, rock, punk, metal, soul, reggae, hip hop, electronic—

you still can’t draw a clear line.

There’s no real border.

The same can be applied to many other cultural traditions and forms.

Everything blends.

Everything leaks into everything else.

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 Chapter 8: The Divided Individual in a Divided World

Nowadays, in this global consumer society,

it often seems like individuals finally have a voice—

regardless of ethnic background, sex, or identity.

In many ways, this is true.

The world is more open than before.

More inclusive.

More aware of diversity.

And yet—at the same time—

it feels like most people now focus more than ever on identity through the prisms of ethnicity, race, religion, sex, sexuality…

Less on who they are.

More on what they’re labeled as.

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The media plays a huge part in this.

Everything is politicized.

Everything becomes a symbol.

Stories are twisted—

made more alarming, more dramatic, more emotional, more offensive, more pride-inducing.

Usually, again, for political purposes.

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Sometimes, in order to fight one extreme, the opposite extreme must rise.

But eventually—

we must return to the center.

To the thing itself.

To the whole.

Two opposing forces don’t cancel each other out.

They don’t always negate.

They can both distort.

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I believe this view of a shared cultural origin—

this idea that music and art and story flow gradually from place to place—

can also be applied to everything else.

To religions.

To food.

To class.

To politics.

To gender.

To sexuality.

There are no clear-cut lines.

Only gradients.

The world is not divided by truth.

It’s divided by ideas.

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Chapter 9: Class, Culture, and the Mirror Across the World

I see similarities between all cultures across the world—no matter where they are.

There are parallels between urban cultures globally,

and likewise between agricultural or rural ones.

Probably the biggest remaining cultural divide in the world

is between so-called “civilized” societies—

and cultures that have retained a pre-civilized way of life.

By “civilized,” I mean people who live in fixed settlements,

cultivating land and managing property.

And by “pre-civilized,” I mean hunter-gatherer societies.

Yet even between these seemingly distant ways of life—

the most fundamental aspects of humanity

can still be seen in both.

⸻

There are places—geographically separate,

with different languages, religions, customs—

and yet, the cultures are similar.

That’s because culture isn’t defined by national borders.

It’s shaped by shared needs.

By how people live together.

⸻

All large cultural areas—what I sometimes call “cultural spheres”—

influence one another constantly.

Even if the smaller subcultures within them don’t always touch directly.

The boundaries are never clear.

One cultural region melts into the next—

always gradually.

⸻

All human individuals—just like all cultures—

share most of their inner structure.

We exist with the same basic needs.

The same emotional palette.

The same desire to create, survive, connect.

The differences—however important they might seem—

are mostly on the surface.

Underneath,

we are the same.

⸻

I’m disappointed in humanity sometimes.

Because I actually respect us.

I believe in us.

I believe we can rise above this.

We can see what matters:

That we are individuals,

and we are human.

Not some ideal.

Not a faction.

Not a stereotype.

⸻

I’ve met people who see through the illusion.

They know these divisions are sustained by lies—

by myths that feed off our need to belong.

They know this screen of false separation—

that says you are your race, your nation, your sex, your sexuality—

is a distraction from the truth.

The truth is:

You are a person.

You are human.

And you are your own self.

⸻

Individuality and humanity are not opposites.

They are the same thing.

Two sides of the only labels that actually mean anything:

You, and us, all of us.

⸻

Chapter 11: Control, Belonging, and the Politics of Fear

Many people don’t see how control works.

How power operates.

They think they’re free—

but they’re following systems they never chose,

believing things they never questioned,

fighting enemies they never met.

And often—

it’s all based on lies.

⸻

Humans have always been manipulated by a simple trick:

Create a group.

Tell people they belong to it.

Then convince them that their group is in danger.

That others are out to get them.

It works every time.

In every society.

Across all of history.

⸻

This is how religions were used.

This is how nations were built.

This is how entire populations were enslaved,

or sent to war,

or convinced to give up their own freedom “for safety.”

It’s how people were taught to hate others—

and to hate themselves.

⸻

In our time, the manipulation is more advanced.

It wears new clothes.

Power uses psychology now.

Algorithms.

Addiction.

Information control.

It’s sleek.

It’s subtle.

It’s effective.

And most people still don’t see it.

⸻

Media bombards us with fear, pride, and identity.

Everything is political.

They want you to pick a side.

They want you to react.

Because when you’re afraid—

you don’t think.

You don’t feel.

You obey.

⸻

So people cling to their group.

To nationalism.

To religion.

To ideology.

To “their truth.”

But none of those things are truly theirs.

They are just reflections of power.

⸻

I don’t hate religion.

I don’t hate tradition.

I don’t hate people who believe.

But I hate when belief is used to control,

To manipulate

to shame,

to silence,

to divide.

⸻

Control is always based on fear.

Real power doesn’t need to scare you.

Real power liberates.

⸻

Chapter 12: What Connects Us

I know I’m not alone in thinking this way.

I know others feel it too—

this ache, this dissonance,

this hope.

⸻

We are tired.

We are hurt.

We are overwhelmed.

We are divided.

But we are still human.

And we still carry the same breath.

The same dreams.

The same music.

The same rhythm inside us.

Even if the words we use are different.

Even if we were told to be enemies.

⸻

Art can bring us back.

Music.

Color.

Movement.

Stories.

Because they belong to everyone.

Because they were never separate to begin with.

⸻

If I ever raise a child,

I want them to grow up knowing this:

That being human

is more important than being anything else.

That love is more real than identity.

That the world is not a map of borders—

but a dance of connection.

⸻

There is a part in all of us

that remembers this truth.

That longs to return to it.

That never fully forgot.

It’s the part that sings

when no one is listening.

That moves when there is no choreography.

That creates without needing permission.

It’s the part that knows

we were never really strangers.

Just reflections of each other—

waiting to remember.

We live in a time of great division and strife, and the only way forward is to see how much we all need to share this world, and help eachother, regardless of one's sex, race, religion, nationality or sexual preference, we are all humans first and most fundamentally, we are a giant, scarred, amazingly diverse and beautiful yet very divided family. Each of us is a unique individual, and an important part of us. Everyone deserves to live a good life, and to create, express and explore in this existence. 

Lots of love to all humans, especially the majority of us all over the globe who don't want harm to come to others, I hope we can get through this and continue to thrive together, and not against eachother, and also to keep this planet of ours as well as ourselves as healthy as possible.