That might sound like a joke; The Idealist, the Cynic, and the Global Neighbor. Unfortunately, it isn’t. For today’s blogpost I revisited an article I wrote almost a decade ago, holding it against my thoughts about current society…
The Idealist, the Cynic, and the Global Neighbor...
Years ago, I sat at this very desk and wrote a question that has haunted humanity since the beginning of civilizaton: Is world peace possible without the loss of individuality? When I first published those thoughts, I received meaningful responses. Yet here we are, years later, looking at the exact same globe, watching the exact same cycles of hatred, power struggles, and division play out on our screens.
The idealist in me still longs for a world where we don’t consciously choose to hurt, destroy, or diminish one another. But the cynic? The cynic still sits on my shoulder, looking at history, asking if true peace is just a beautiful illusion.
Whether you believe we were created by a higher power, evolved from primates, or dropped here from the stars, one truth remains: at the very beginning, we walked this earth as one single family.
Then, we wandered. We split into groups, crossed oceans, and claimed different corners of the earth. For a while, it seems, there was a peaceful rhythm of survival.
And then, something went wrong.
Human beings stopped letting each other just be. We started claiming what belonged to others. Was it a desperate urge to survive, or was it the birth of an ugly appetite for power and control? Did we decide, thousands of years ago, that our way of living was the only right way?
I believe the answer lies in the messy, inflexible reality of our individuality.
Inside every single one of us sits the entire spectrum of human traits. We are caring, spontaneous, and social; but we are also jealous, controlling, and fearful. The place we are born, the way we are raised, our traumas, and our triumphs determine which of these traits get fed, and which ones we act upon.
We are unique as a species, but extremely unique within it. And because we are so individual, we have a terrible, modern habit: we try to shove each other into boxes to make the world easier to understand.
We categorize by labels: straight, gay, black, white, rich, poor, democrat, republican… But the moment you try to climb into a box, you realize you don’t fully fit. I might fit into one label, but if that same box contains people whose values completely oppose mine, I am forced right back out. We are too complex, too beautifully flawed, to ever get everyone’s noses pointing in the exact same direction.
There will always be an overlap, just as there will always be profound differences.
History shows us that forcing everyone into alignment never works. So, what is the alternative? Do we round up the “idiots” and the tyrants of the world, put them on an isolated island, and wash our hands of them? If we do that, don’t we just become the very thing we claim to hate? Don’t we become the judges and arbiters of who deserves to exist?
We cannot eliminate the dark parts of humanity by using darkness.
So, should we give up our individuality for the sake of peace? Absolutely not. A world of forced uniformity isn’t a sanctuary; it’s a prison.
Perhaps the only path forward is to look back at that ancient rule of the first explorers: live and let live. It requires a bold, difficult acceptance of the individual sitting across from us—or across the digital divide. It means acknowledging that we contain various personalities and traits. It also means choosing to hold space for our neighbors rather than trying to force them into a box that suits our comfort.
But what happens when we try to “let be”, and the other side refuses to do the same? What happens when a boundary is crossed, or when the noise becomes too loud to tolerate?
I have come to believe that when we truly cannot “live and let live” together, the wisest, most courageous thing we can do is to intentionally disConnect. To withdraw. We do not need to fight, we do not need to fix, and we do not need to sit in spaces that diminish us. We can simply choose to step away, for a little while, or even forever if that is what our well-being requires. True individuality includes the freedom to choose who has access to our uniqueness and thus our life.
The cynic in me still thinks I won’t be around long enough to see this become a global reality
But the idealist in me, the part expanding this virtual home here every single day, keeps hoping for acceptance, keeps hoping for global peace.
Without losing a single ounce of who we are.
Patty Wolters
A global neighbor.
