Belonging in Society essays

Belonging in Society essays Belonging is important for our growth to independence; even further, it is important for our growth to inner freedom and maturity. It is only through belonging that we can break out of the shell of individualism and self-centredness that both protects and isolates us. However, the human drive for belonging also has its pitfalls. There is an innate need in our hearts to identify with a group, both for protection and for security, to discover and affirm our identity, and to use the group to prove our worthiness and goodness, indeed even to prove that we are better than others. It is my belief that it is not religion or culture at the root of human conflict, but the way in which groups use religion or culture to dominate one another. Let me hasten to add that if it were not religion or culture that people use as a stick with which to beat others, they would just use something else. Are human beings basically evil? The French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, maintained that love is only one person's freedom eating up another's freedom. Are we all called to live and die in conflict? Do all our generous acts merely conceal the need to be superior to others? Sartre leads me to my main point: What is the need to belong? Is it only a way to deal with personal insecurity, sharing in the sense of identity that a group provides? Or is this sense of belonging an important part of everyone's journey to freedom? Is the sense of belonging akin to the earth itself, a nurturing medium that allows plants and trees to grow and to share their flowers and fruits with all? A group is the manifestation of this need to belong. A group can, however, close in on itself, believing that it is superior to others. But my vision is that belonging should be at the heart of a fundamental discovery: that we all belong to a common humanity, the human race. We may be rooted in a specific family and culture, but we come to this earth open up to others, ...