Interconnectedness

Michael Lerner

Probably one of the most tragic messages we've received from the current administration is the idea that we're all on our own. It is a death-dealing belief in separateness. Probably one of the most passionate spokespersons of our time about the reality of interconnectedness is Rabbi Michael Lerner. An interview with Rabbi Lerner published in What Is Enlightenment? magazine is entitled "From What Is to What Ought to Be". Here is an excerpt:

The fundamental reality of the universe is that we are all interconnected as part of the unity of all Being. And the alienation that we experience is first and foremost an alienation from who we are. It is a product of our failure to understand ourselves as connected to all other human beings and then to all other beings. That failure manifests in a zillion ways in contemporary life, but it's the root of the problem because every specific form of alienation is rooted in our distance from or our lack of awareness of our fundamental interconnection with all other beings.

If we want to look at some specifics around that, we can talk, for example, about the ecological crisis—the way that we imagine that we can dump pollution into the world and that it won't affect us. Or, in a more sophisticated version of this stupidity, we imagine that we won't dump the pollution into our particular part of the planet. We'll dump it into the Third World, not recognizing that we're part of one world system, one planetary system, and one universal system. So this is symbolic of the craziness that comes from not understanding the interconnection—because the poisons come back to us. They come back to us through the food. They come back to us through the air. They come back to us through the interaction with other human beings who have become sick as a result of the impact of the pollution and environmental destruction that we are engaged with. But we are unaware of this, or we're unable to see it.
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On the social level, the same thing is playing out, just in a slightly different way. Were we to understand our fundamental interconnections, we would recognize that our own well-being or the development of our soul and consciousness is totally dependent on the development of every other human being on the planet. That is to say that we're intrinsically linked, that the image of us as individuals pursuing our own self-interest or even our own enlightenment is deeply mistaken. But when one doesn't recognize that, then one thinks, "Oh, I can pursue my own path. I can make it for myself, and it doesn't really matter what's happening to these other human beings around me." And that alienation from other human beings causes so many of the social problems that we're facing, because people imagine that they are on their own when, in fact, they're deeply interconnected with every other human being, not just at the physical level that I was talking about with regard to ecology but at the emotional and spiritual level, the level of our expectations of what's possible between human beings. Our capacity to connect with other human beings—every single interaction that we have—is shaped by our consciousness of the totality of human relationships. And in a world where human relationships are based on a model of each one out for herself or himself, the distance between us is dramatic, and the possibility of loving connection is deeply reduced.

As I've said before, I don't know whether to be hopeful or not about the November elections because of the vote fraud made possible by Diebold voting machines. But if it is possible for a free and fair election to take place, the choice before the voters is between two vastly different assumptions about reality. Republicans say, "You're on your own." Democrats say, "We're in it together." The question for the voters is which do we want? Not only that, which is true?

Why don't the Republicans realize that they too must breathe the air they choose to poison? Why don't they realize that their children too will inherit a planet made uninabitable by catastrophic climate change? They too will need to function in an economy wrecked by massive debt, they too will have to live in a society with increased crime due to the inescapable poverty and hopelessness their policies are perpetuating.

Well, if the polls are any indication, some Republicans are waking up. My fervent prayer is that it is not too late.