DailyJim: The united people of America

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another Daily Gym. Today is July 4th, 2024, the 200 and... Man, I don't even know. What, 1776 plus 249th anniversary, I believe, of the United States, if I'm doing my math correct. And today, I mean, of the Declaration of Independence, But today I want to talk about the United People of America, not the United States of America.

And so, I believe that the country will survive and thrive based on how united we feel as people. We the people, not necessarily the states. I think in the beginning when we came together, maybe there was some sense of unity around the individuals, around the people and the groups, but I think states were the main forming coalition of the government. It was uniting the different states together, almost like uniting different countries into one country, or a supranational country that would unite it together. But what I want to talk about now is, do we feel united as people? People because if the states are united but the people are you not united with the states or not united with each other what is the point will our democracy will our representative democracy republic whatever you want to call it will it survive if it or will it thrive if we are not that united with each other.

And so, how united do you think we are these days? What does united mean to you? What do you think, if people are to be united, what does that mean to you? To me, united means being on the same team. It doesn't mean having the same opinion, doesn't mean having the same beliefs, doesn't mean having the same behaviors. It doesn't mean.

Necessarily getting along with each other or wanting to spend time with each other, but it means being on the same team, believing that we are on the same team. Maybe not even wanting to be on the same team, but believing that we're on the same team and recognizing and accepting that we're on the same team. Ideally, we would want to be on the same team. And I think a lot of people may not understand it the same way that I do, but I'm not sure. Because for me, Listen, so much out there is like, oh, you're against Trump. I am not against Trump as a human being. I am against Trump as the president of the United States. For me, that is a big difference. It's almost like, to use a very American analogy, I don't want him to be the starting quarterback, but I still want him on the team. He is still part of the team. team, but I don't want him in that role, in that position as starting quarterback.

And now maybe there are plenty of other people out there who would say, you know what, I don't even want him on the team. Let's kick him off the team. Let's just throw him in jail and lock him away. I don't take that perspective. Somebody asked me earlier on Twitter today if, I don't even know what they were talking about, but something like, ah, and you agree that these people are imbeciles, right? And I'm like, I don't think anyone's an imbecile. I think people have their own opinions, but I still think that we're all in this together. Something along those lines. And I don't know if people get that concept. And I think maybe we get that concept only if we're in that state where we get the concept. And I hope people get more to that state. Because when we're not in that place, when we think the world's out to get us, it can be a really miserable way to live. And it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. And so if we think that our neighbors and our brothers and our mothers and our teachers and our colleagues, coworkers, and all these people across the country don't care about us, they're not on our team, then why would they want to be on the team? But if we think that they're on our team and if we start and if we lead with that attitude that I am united with you whether you feel united with me I am on your team whether you believe you are on my team or not, then maybe that can also become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am tired of this idea that we can't be on the same team if we disagree. I think that makes a really good team. I don't actually want to be on a team with people that don't disagree with, with people who won't disagree with me. Because then we're not actually going to get anything done. What, I can make all the decisions and they just say, yes, yes, yes, yes. I am not the smartest person in every single aspect of life. I don't know how to do many, many things. I need people around me who know what they're doing in their specific realm. I need different perspectives. We need different perspectives to push it forward, to make decisions, to resolve conflict, to see things from different angles. So this idea that we can thrive as a nation by being more and more divided more and more disconnected from each other and I'm not talking politically I'm talking culturally, politics in my opinion is just a sub-segment of culture and culturally we feel I believe we are becoming more and more divided on some things we are isolating in more and more ways.

And I wonder why Why? Can we please? And I hope that we can go in the other direction. I hope we can go in the direction of seeing someone who disagrees with us and fighting to keep them on our team and not just saying, fine, we'll agree to disagree. I'll never talk to you. I won't talk to you until the next holiday, which some of us do with family. Or maybe we don't even talk to them around the dinner table anymore. more. That we've somehow celebrated or accepted this level of estrangement and disconnection as if it were the founder's intention. I don't know. I'm stretching that a little bit for the the 4th of July thing, but it's, I think we don't, I don't know if we recognize the impact of the estrangement, the impact of the isolation, the impact of the disconnection, the division on our lives. And I'm not talking, again, not about the political aspect. I'm talking about the cultural aspect. I'm talking in our everyday lives. I'm talking the fights that we have over were simple things. Whether men care about women, whether women care about men, whether white people care about black people, whether black people care about white people, whether rich people care about poor people, whether poor people care about rich people, whether like, I mean, you can go into any kind of identity categories that we've divided into to say that this is my team and that's your team and we're against each other. Well, for me, the whole point of having a national identity is to be on the same team.

I've lived in East Africa, and actually one of the things that many people in Tanzania are proud of is that over time they gained a Tanzanian identity.

And some other countries in Africa have struggled because they've been focused so much on the tribal identities and the tribes kind of fight within each other. And actually what's happening here in kenya now is that the young generation is saying that we are tribe lists that the focus is not so much on the tribe it is on the kenyan identity we are kenyans what's happening in europe with this erasmus plus projects that i've uh you know helped out on they the whole idea is to create a stronger european identity and so for me how can we come together in a more united identity, not only as Americans, but I mean, yes, as Americans, for this context, as Americans. But what if we could go even beyond that and we can see ourselves as humans first? What if we could just see ourselves as human beings interacting with other human beings and that we're all on the same team, whether we want to be on the same team or not, we're all on the same team.

Because maybe if we accept that we're on the same team, we'll actually appreciate that we're on the same team. And we'll realize that people are actually looking out for us and they're trying their best. We're trying our best. I just, it pains me and it frustrates me to see, to hear the other messages, to hear the messages that everyone's on their own team, every man for themselves. I just don't believe that's how human society works. I don't think any one of us could survive without other humans, let alone without other animals and plants and other things in the ecosystem. system. So I guess this is just really an appeal, a request to start seeing ourselves as more united, to start to believe that the people in our lives are on our team. They're not fighting against us. They're fighting for us, but they're also fighting for themselves. We are fighting for Can we fight for each other? Can we please fight for each other and realize that's what we're doing? Because when we fight against each other, I feel really scared for the future. But when we fight for each other, I feel very confident that we can get through almost any challenge that we face. On that note, I hope you celebrate today however you would like to celebrate it, and just maybe feel grateful for how long we've had this country, and hopeful for what could be beyond, what could be the next iteration of the United States of America, or what could be even the next iteration of human society on a global level. So i'll leave you with that and talk to you all next week take care.