Jeune Street

I liked this newly-revised article on human identity by Matt Weinberg, a Baha'i writer who has produced lots of excellent, thought-provoking essays over the years:

The prevalent stance that identity is about difference is untenable. Perceiving identity through the relativistic lens of separation or cultural preservation ignores compelling evidence of our common humanity and can only aggravate the forces of discord now so pervasive in the world. The only alternative to this path of fragmentation and disunity is to nurture affective relationships across lines of ethnicity, creed, territory, and color - relationships that can serve as the warp and woof of a new social framework of universal solidarity and mutual respect. A one-dimensional understanding of human beings must be rejected.

... From a Bahá'í perspective, a universal identity is a vital precursor to action that is universal in its effects - to the "emergence of a world community, the consciousness of world citizenship, the founding of a world civilization and culture." In emphasizing our global identity, Bahá'u'lláh presents a conception of life that insists upon a redefinition of all human relationships - between individuals, between human society and the natural world, between the individual and the community, and between individual citizens and their governing institutions.