Culture
Inclusiveness should be our fundamental cultural element. How we think about each other, how we engage in private and business.
We have an opportunity to decide what the next Age of the human journey will evolve around.
The past 5.000 years have in broad strokes taken us through the Agricultural, Industrial and Information Ages. Along with significant surges of thought, art, creation and beliefs that have traversed the same period.
Past ages have been named subsequently or when we were well into them. All named after the advances in technical and industrial capabilities and revolutions that transformed life.
There is a long list of proposed names for the next Age, all aiming to predict what our future will look like. Or rather, which of the current innovations, disruptive trends and technologies will have surfaced as the defining theme when looking back.
But, we have an opportunity to decide – ahead of time – what the next thousand(s) years should revolve and evolve around. What is the overarching idea that will guide us in how we approach life, love, business, our legacy, everything in-between and beyond ?
Now that we have mastered the making of things at scale, we have abundant information and the means to share it, what will we do next ?
The internet is arguably the biggest socioeconomic equaliser ever created. Smartphones and proliferation of high-speed connectivity is increasingly bringing the wealth of knowledge, collaboration and opportunities that is the true intent and beauty of the internet, to the furthest regions and least fortunate of us.
But let’s not forget that computers and high speed internet is not the answer to everything. We need to lift up our eyes from our screens. And meet, interact and engage as humans.
Children need to play with wooden sticks and do finger painting and scrape their knees. Haptic feedback from high definition screens can’t give them those experiences. And it is no substitute for a warm hug from a friend.
The most interesting place on earth is the space between us
The most interesting place on earth is the space between us. It’s where we can meet and learn from and about each others worlds and lives.
Those closest to us, whom we mutually evolve and revolve around. We can re-discover each other every day.
More importantly, it is where we can meet all those who are different from us, unlike us, not from our culture. Those who feel unimportant and forgotten. We have so much to share and learn from each other.
We must also include ourselves. In society, in our jobs, groups of friends and family. Don’t wait for an invitation. Not feeling included doesn’t mean you are excluded – we can’t sit and wait for an invitation and then blame others for feeling left out.
The question is . . . how will we go about creating a world we want to live in ?
Will we continue to pursue efficiency of scale, or diversity at scale ?
Age of Inclusiveness
I propose we decide to enter the Age of Inclusiveness.
Inclusiveness across gender, race, skin colour, beliefs, who we love, how we dress, nationality, economic situation…
I would have suggested we enter the Age of Equality. But it appears we are not quite ready for it…. Equality entails we accept that equal does not mean we should all be ‘the same’.
Equal requires that we recognise, respect, celebrate and learn from our differences. And for that, we need to get to know each other a little better, it is high time. For us to get there, including others is a good beginning.
My hope is, that in a couple of hundred years – or a thousand, people will look back, and recognise this period as the time we entered The Conscious Era. The time on our long journey we decided to shape our future, not merely by what is possible – but by how we wish to live our lives, Together.
shape our future, not merely by what is possible – but by how we wish to live our lives, Together.
Inclusiveness. What does it mean to you, is there a cost to it, what would the long term effects be. Would we still call it the Age of Inclusiveness when looking back?
Share your thoughts please…
#AgeOfInclusiveness
A note on inclusiveness
The distinction between inclusion and inclusiveness.
Inclusion – or the action of including individual people or groups is great, but is a one by one approach and will inevitably leave some out – to be included later hopefully.
Whereas inclusiveness is all including – it is a non-distinction way of thinking. We are not the same – but we are all included, naturally.
From Merriam Webster
inclusion
noun
in·?clu·?sion | \ in-?klü-zh?n
Definition of inclusion
1: the act of including : the state of being included
2: something that is included: such asa: a gaseous, liquid, or solid foreign body enclosed in a mass (as of a mineral)b: a passive usually temporary product of cell activity (such as a starch grain) within the cytoplasm or nucleus
3: a relation between two classes that exists when all members of the first are also members of the second — compare MEMBERSHIP sense 3
4: the act or practice of including students with disabilities in regular school classes
inclusive
adjective
in·?clu·?sive | \ in-?klü-siv , -ziv\
Definition of inclusive
1: comprehending stated limits or extremes from Monday to Friday inclusive
2a: broad in orientation or scope
b: covering or intended to cover all items, costs, or services