Who is US?
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\nWho is us? What defines us? What makes us us, in comparison to the others??
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\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First try:
\nI am us. Clearly, I am I. And whoever is not I, is not us. Their worlds are\ndifferent, I cannot feel what they feel. Hence, they are not I. And they are\nnot us.
\nHowever, why do we then extend the rights and duties we oblige from ourselves\nto others? Why do I feel that (some of) my family, friends, etc. deserve the\nsame things I deserve? By extending these rights (and duties) to others, it\nbecomes clear that I is not us. I form part of us. But I do not define the\nentire us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second try:
\nMy family is us. Clearly, I form part of us. My family is the extension of\nmyself, and I extend the rights to them that I want for me.
\nYet again, why do I extend the rights to friends, and sometimes even to\nstrangers? Why do I often feel bad when I do not extend these rights to\nsomeone? Besides, what should the defining criterium be if family were us? The\ndefinition of us if the family XYZ. Why not some other family? The mere\narbitrariness of that definition of us makes me shiver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third (and fourth to tenth) try:
\nMy nation is us. (My religion is us. My skin color is us. My region is us. My\ngender is us. My political party is us. My social class is us. My blood type is\nus.)
\nThese are all extensions of I to some set of humans that share certain traits\nwith me. However, in each of these definitions, the others are very much like\nus. Is someone becoming us if he moves to my region, nation? Converts to my\nreligion? Adapts the same gender? It seems that all these classifications imply\nthat there are others that are much more like me than some members of my group.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eleventh try:
\nAll humanity is us.
\nThis seems like a reasonable assumption, immune to all the objections former\ndefinitions of us called for. However, what is the defining criterium?
\nConsciousness? What would we say about a human that is not conscious? Would it\nnot be us? A human that walks like us, breathes like us, talks like us, feels\nlike us. But doing all these things unconsciously. Would it seize being us?\nProbably not, in particular, if we consider that the degree of consciousness\nvaries among humans.
\nThe ability to feel pain and joy? What would we say about a human that cannot\nexperience pain or joy? Would it stop being us? Would we apply different laws\nto them? Would it seize being us? Many people experience both pain and joy very\ndifferently. Who am I to judge?
\nBeing alive? What would we say about a human that is not alive? Would it stop\nbeing us? What we stop extending the same rights to a person that is not alive\nthan to ourselves? Apparently so\u2026\u2026 What does that imply? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twelfth try:
\nEverything alive is us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Who is US? Who is us? What defines us? What makes us us, in comparison to the others?? First try: I am us. Clearly, I am I. And whoever is not I, is not us. Their worlds are different, I cannot feel what they feel. Hence, they are not I. And they are not us. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-69","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n