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That simple statement has been the bane of mankind.
Modifying it slightly would be a great improvement.
We could say, ‘I’m better than you at this or that,’ opening the door to seeing others as potentially better than us at one thing or another.
Which is obvious. We need only look around.
Such awareness opens the door for valuing our interdependence. And with it our tolerance and respect for others.
Now the trick is to carry it over to other areas, notably politics and race relations.
Let’s take politics.
Our country is deeply divided at this time. Each side convinced they own the truth. That if things were done the way they believe should be, then all would be so much better.
If schools taught subjects A or B instead, why then students would grow up to be nearly perfect human beings.
If people committed to belief X or Y, and rejected those other nasty ideas, why then our connections would be so much different and the world would get along so much better.
I’m all for free speech. And yet, in the heat of the moment, what we say can become offensive to others.
When it does, it shuts down the path to dialogue as a means to mutual understanding.
The understanding of the roots of our positions to so enable the building of bridges to our shared humanity.
Countless people agree on the above yet, somehow, we keep making the same mistake again, leading to one side overvaluing the essence of their position and devaluing the other.
And so…
