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What World Are You Living In?
A Personal Perspective: Is it an "I" world or a "We" world?
Posted January 13, 2022 Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Key points
- Our world is splitting apart. Can we bring it together?
- Can you see the "other" as an extension of yourself?
- What can you do, today, to promote the experience of "We"?
A doctor in India I respect greatly once said: “You are either living in an ‘I’ world or a ‘We’ world.”
What did he mean?
People who live in an ‘I’ world are chiefly concerned with themselves, their security, their own well-being, their status, their property, their money, their comforts. Others exist to serve or benefit them. They insulate and protect themselves from everything and everyone they don’t want to taint their lives.
If you live in a ‘We’ world you have a different perspective. You understand—you know—that we are here but for each other. Each and all of us bear some responsibility for what happens to everyone—in your family, your circle of friends, your community, your nation, and the world. You believe that if each of us does our part, we can, collectively, make this planet a much better home for all of us.
At heart, you have to ask yourself: What world do I live in, a ‘We’ world or an ‘I’ world? This is a tough question that deserves your honest scrutiny. Most people who believe they are living in a ‘We’ world are actually kidding themselves.
Why? Most likely you are the product of the same educational system that I am: years of schooling that promoted individuality over community, competition over cooperation, getting ahead over getting together. We have been trained into an ‘I’ world. My grades, my money, my career, my status. While it’s essential to consider your own health and well-being, for most people it stops there, with themselves.
Our global needle is tilting dangerously in the direction of an ‘I’ world. Witness the serious crises of our time: A pandemic that ravages lives, climate change that wreaks havoc on the environment, social injustice that demonizes ‘the Other,’ instability of financial markets that separates the super-rich from the rest of us, and a dramatic rise, worldwide, in anxiety, depression, stress-related diseases, and suicide rates.
If we take three steps back and observe what is happening, we see that our ‘I’ world—a world at odds with itself—is falling apart. World health and global peace are a misty-moisty fairy tale. If our current story continues no one will live happily ever after.
Can we move the needle in the opposite direction—to a ‘We’ world of healthy, thriving interconnection, where your individual well-being is a stepping stone to making this a better world for everyone?
Rabbi Hillel, a fourth-century sage, said:
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?
In the Jewish tradition, the holiest prayer is the Shema: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." One. This is one world. We are one.
The time to shift the needle is now.
It is the challenge of our lifetime.
Reflection
What action, small or large, can you take, today, to move the needle to a ‘We’ world?
