(2 + 2 = 1) > 2 [or, A Few Quick Words on Us]

Animals were once defined apart from humans because it was believed that they could not rationalise and work together. It was thought that they lacked the ability to comprehend a greater good, and rise above their limitations. Today we know better. We know that not only can some animals think in this way, but also that many of us cannot.

It is mankind’s greatest gift to see weakness in ourselves. To examine in detail where we are flawed, and others are not. To see that we could be better, but are not. To learn to do what betters us, and to learn to forgo what doesn’t. Inherent in our nature, we measure ourselves not by the quantity or degree of our imperfections, but by our ability to overcome them. We measure ourselves by the obstacles we overcome.

We seek out the challenges because on the bad days we beat them and we know that we can, and on the good days they beat us and we see how we could be better. Small challenges are personal, but great challenges are shared, and make us equal before they make us better. Great challenges help those around us, so that that the “we” becomes stronger.

Sometimes this ambition is corrupted, and tries to widen the gap between us. Some believe it is as much to be great only in comparison to those we hinder and oppress. This is a mind-set borne in the idea that we cannot be better. However, unless one can suppress all of humanity, one will never rise above it. In this way the empires of the world were made; by dividing people. Not because it was believed this was to the benefit of people, but because they recognised the strength of people united. Today these same ideas are propagated, often by the very groups that were weakened and divided in the past. Petty divisions are made in the belief that one man’s dreams are so different from another’s. That we are different inside, because we look and act different on the outside. However, what benefits few at the expense of many is not true ambition, and not worthy of a species as rich in achievement and accomplishment as we are.

There are also those who believe we can be better. They understand the wants of one man can be only so different from the wants of another. We are only human after all. To survive, then to thrive and then to flourish is the desire of all living things. If there is something shared in our goals, then indeed there must be much shared in our thoughts.

In considering two ideas we can examine their strengths and weaknesses, take the strengths of both, and in the process eliminate some of the flaws. Differences, in this way, complement each other and combine to create something new, something stronger and more beautiful than was there previously. Two ideas combine to make a single goal more attainable. This is the strength that diversity grants us, and it exists in the differences between all the people of the world. It exists because of the many ways in which we are all different, and we benefit because of fundamental ways in which we are all the same.

For every want in this world, we have a hundred million ways. In a hundred million ways we have just one want. What challenges can stand before such opposition? It can be said only that the best of us will find them, and together seek to overcome them as well.