Are we all connected? John Donne: No man is an island. John Steinbeck: The Sea of Cortez.?

Question

Is there a thread of humanity that connects us all? And if so, why are we always in direct conflict with each other?

"The Sea of Cortez" is a rather obscure allusion to a book where Steinbeck and his long time friend, Eddy Ricketts discuss all manner of things while Marlin fishing. Steinbeck outlines his theory that all of us share a common bond. That we all matter in the larger scheme of things. You can really get a feel for his philosophy in his masterpiece "Grapes of Wrath."

Answer 1

Of course we are all connected. And if you don't believe me...... ask Kevin Bacon.

I've seriously always wanted to believe that we are connected. We may not look alike....... but all animals form their own adaptations to their habitats. But nevertheless, we are connected by a thread that runs from the first humans that existed until it has woven a blanket so thick that tracing it back has become next to impossible.

But lets set genetics aside and just talk about social interaction. Everything I do will affect you whether you realize it or not. And everything you do will affect me. We are in a world where we are "involved" in one another's lives and in being so we are their lives and their lives are ours. If I hurt...... there are other people that will hurt with me. As a result of this pain, these people's lives may be affected too. They may neglect a task. That task may have been important enough that another's livlihood stemmed upon its completion. If their livlihood is affected....... they turn elsewhere which in turn affects more people..... which affects more and more people...... which again..... affects others.

How unaware we all are daily of how a small smile can change someone's day. But little do we realize that by brightening their day........ we've set off a chain reaction.

I can not help but believe that we are one family........ and in keeping that in mind..... and being aware of our actions always, we should realize how many people we affect daily as our lives are interconnected...... always.

Answer 2

Hopefully there is still a connecting thread left. --I guess we'll be optimists and assume there is such a thread. --But even the greatest optimist wouldn't go as far as to say we all have a 'perfect' connection.

Conflict is certainly a force which minimizes connectivity, and thus the 'Global energy grid', if you take my meaning, becomes more and more congested. Conflict changes the pattern, though it is still ultimately (on a grand, grand scale) balanced. -I hesitate to think that because, metaphysically speaking, if anything actually became seperated, balance would be lost. Even the slightest disconnection, provided it was indeed complete, would cause enrgy to well and have repercussions on the entire system, over time. Internal influances, healing, could still mend the structure. We see that on many levels in living tissue.

Now for the bad news. Far reaching tears would certainly cause far reaching disruption. An expotential increase in destruction would indicate balance is lost... unless all the severed pieces were will to release and heal.

Thank you for that question. It brought me a lillte more clarity on a subject I need to develop, a grand unifying theory. I know "The Answer" is Truth (that doesn't necessarily exclude 42). --But the problem I'm having is getting people to check my Math. --Concider the reverse: If the GUT doesn't = Truth, then....

Then there is no then, and we are not connected.

It is as you wish (and as everbody else wishes too.)

Answer 3

If we look at the big picture, the latest theory is that the universe came into being through a one-off event called the Big-bang from 'zero' dimension..... thereafter a cause and effect chain is uniformly in operation without exception..... therefore, it is only logical to conclude that all of us are bound by the unseen links in the grand cause and effect chain. As to constant conflicts, again the same logic applies.... it is because we are connected that there are conflicts.... if we were not to be connected at all, there would be no scope for any conflict either. We are bound by each other and in our zeal to increase space for our own self, we keep colliding with each other.

Answer 4

It's one idea...
But the reverse has also been held. It is possible to be totally alone in a crowd, or while holding your partner.
And possible that one's passing will not greatly diminish the human race.

"The captive in the skull.
Caught in a mesh of living veins,
In cell of padded bone,
He loneliest is when he pretends
That he is not alone."
From Ogden Nash's "Listen"

Or from Kipling's "The Last Department..."
"Trust me, To-day's Most Indispensables,
Five hundred men can take your place or mine."

Answer 5

you drink from the spring of life and then pee it out onto the world in which it receives it and cleans it threw the earths filtration to have me drink from the spring of your pee and you wonder why we have conflict

Answer 6

YES,,,,,, but were still ALONE...


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