Is Global Citizenship too Idealistic?

I hold a global mindset. In an ideal world, I would celebrate at the notion of being a global citizen, but I do not believe that the current state of our world makes global citizenship seem practical. Let me explain: a global mindset is one that simply asserts man’s innate equality among others, as members of the global human race, whereas global citizenship implies global governance by one legislative body. Such a definition of a ‘global mindset’ seems so natural that it feels quite silly to explicitly state it. To think and act such a way, however, has proven quite difficult to the nations of our world, achieving political gain on the backs of oppressed populations. I believe that before we can even consider achieving effective global citizenship, we must first understand and commit to the global mindset. To pursue global progress as one humanity, we need not relinquish our local identities, but rather we must hold all humans within diverse nations and abroad in a global regard that asserts no superiority from one sect of humanity over another.

Through the lottery of birth, I was fortunate to arrive on Earth in 2001 to an upper-middle-class, Indian immigrant, Hindu family in London, England as a British Citizen. Until the age of 12, I lived a life of vibrant interactions between people of all walks of life, all backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities, religions, and origins. To quote a painfully naïve cliché, in my youth I could say that I “never saw the colour” of my friends — at least, in a way that innately signified division to me; I celebrated Diwali with my English Christian friends, they celebrated Christmas with me, we attended festivals outside of our own cultures purely out of awe and interest of other cultures and generally reaped the benefits of growing up in one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities. At that age, I was too young to understand the deeply rooted societal divisions of colour and race that divide places like Great Britain, but the naivete of youth in a diverse city like London shaped me to hold a mindset of global equality and equity, that the experience of existing as humans was one of unity, and that all cultural differences only enriched that experience.

At age 12, when I left London to move to Ohio with my family, I found myself conscious of my existence as an ethnic minority for the first time; living in the midwestern suburbs away from cultural diversity, I dove deeper into the meaning of Hinduism and found my global mindset made more profound because of it. The Upanishads — some of Hinduism’s most ancient texts — describe the universe and all its diverse life forms to essentially be avatars of God. It is a complicated notion, but I find resonance in it with a hypothetical ‘global mindset’, particularly in the Isha Upanishad which states,

“Those who see all creatures in themselves,

And themselves in all creatures know no fear,

Those who see all creatures in themselves,

And themselves in all creatures know no grief.

How can the multiplicity of life,

Delude the one who sees its unity?” — Isha Upanishad.

By all means, these texts were not written in the context of globalization or global mindsets, or anything of the sort, but is it not worth considering our collective existence as humans similarly? That the multiplicity of life — our cultures, sects, religions, nations, genders — are what makes us unique and defines us as human beings? This verse fueled me to consider my existence as a human — as one of the 7.7 billion humans of the globe — while using my secondary identifiers as a Londoner, Hindu, child of Indian immigrants, etc. to build my strength as a globally oriented individual. I grew as a child whose upbringing taught her that diversity was normal and innate to human existence, and whose ancient culture likely would say the same, despite more historically modern societal divisions of religion and race that we still struggle to escape. Saying this, I still hesitate to fully commit to the term ‘global citizen,’ just yet as it implies a political obligation or governance at a global level. Perhaps I would be better defined as a ‘citizen of the globe,’ then: one who first and foremost identifies at the human level.

It is important to note, however, that my ‘global mindset’ was intentionally taught and made more powerful by my lack of national connection to any country. I do think it is rather idealistic to assume that anyone can just decide to identify with the entire globe rather than a nation whose values they share; to a degree, local identifiers are just scientifically more attractive and comfortable to humans. After all, part of my mindset stems deeply from my identity as a Hindu. In fact, according to Yuval Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Sapiens’ evolutionary success came in its ability to communicate through stories and forge bonds between large groups of people with shared ideologies. Harari brings us into the modern-day by stating that “any large-scale human cooperation — whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city, or an archaic tribe — is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imaginations” (Harari). We create these metaphysical forces of ideology with the intention to bring together groups of limitless size, and though such collective truths can divide certain populations against each other, ideally would a global mindset unite the globe as equals if it was similarly taught? Such a question seems intensely naïve: when so much of worldwide ideologies serve to unify certain populations against others either nationalistically, racially, religiously, even misogynistically and sexually, is a ‘common truth’ that we as one human species are innately equals one that removes from the world’s current ideologies? Can we not have both? Perhaps not. Regardless, I fervently believe as members of this globalizing world, we owe it to our futures and to the prospect of any peaceful collaboration towards progress at all to make the conscious decision to assume this mindset.

Then why is a global mindset more realistic than global citizenship? I’d argue that only if, in an early and crucial step of Homo Sapiens’ Cognitive Revolution, a version of a global mindset was biologically engrained in our species, we would have a semblance of a unified politically global society today. Unfortunately for globalists — myself included — much of our world is one of internationally competing capitalist interests driving forward the process of globalization. Our interconnectedness as people contradicts our competitiveness as nations, and capital gain seems to trump all. So, instead of striving towards an ideal and globally united world that, at this point, is entirely hypothetical, we must focus on gradually transforming the governance of our world as it currently is. If global citizenship implies worldwide governance by a single legislative body, our world constantly proves it to be dysfunctional and in the interest of only the economically powerful. The United Nations demonstrates this with its monopolizing of power by Security Council nations whose status has not changed since the Second World War. China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US have been globally criticized for using their vetoing powers to favour their own political and economic interests, regardless of their lack of geographical representation. A recent example emerges in Xinjiang, China. Dozens of nations in the United Nations have vocally spoken against China’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims, but still, no decisive action has been taken to stop its crimes against humanity. At a global scale, we place certain nations above each other because of their powerful economies and their historical success before examining human rights. In our world, it seems that a nation’s capital and political power is fundamentally more important than the protection of all human rights under a globally equal mindset. Until we achieve a mindset of equality in the highest positions, how can we expect change to occur for those who are persecuted, let alone improve our world?

Despite governmental and societal divisions, global mindfulness is actually overwhelmingly present in much of our world, especially in younger populations. To prove this, we need not look further than the world-shaking peaceful protests in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement this past summer. Human beings of all sects, ages, genders, socioeconomic classes, and nationalities, united to express their exasperation with centuries old institutional racism and police brutality in the United States following the brutal and unjust murder of George Floyd. The protests quickly spread all over the globe, inspired by the BLM movement to pursue racial justice worldwide. In fact, much of the sit-ins, protests, and marches were organized and led by today’s youth, much of whose increasingly global education in school and through social media, has enlightened and continued to enlighten us about the human rights violations occurring worldwide. I’d say that the movement only provided me with hope for a future run by the youth of the world who so is so fervently determined to seek a globally mindful condition of existence for the world. By being and acting with regards to global mindfulness, the BLM movement has been able to seek reform for flawed law enforcement, inspire the most powerful voices in the world to speak out against such injustices, and even drive the introduction of new legislation and legislators that promise to restructure government’s racist institutions. Such events remind us that crimes fueled by division have the power to unite humanity despite its divisions to ameliorate the human condition for one oppressed sect of our kind.

So: let’s be realistic and make change on a scale that we can control and learn to think globally. Expecting the world to commit to a global mindset on a global scale is premature at its current state, so let us make the conscious decision to teach ourselves and exercise our global mindsets in any arenas where we have influence. Many of the nations in our 21st century globalized world are blessed with an unprecedented vibrant diversity that often is cause for oppression. Let us instead celebrate it. Let us contest those in power who use our different identities as fuel for caustic rhetoric. If one sect of humanity progresses in society, let it not be at the expense of another. We need not necessarily reject a world governed by capitalism, but rather build up society to be governed by legislators who consult a global mindset, ensuring no nation’s human rights violations are ignored because of economic power. Little by little, we — a generation of young, influential people — can change the tide of division that has haunted our past and learn to change and govern our world in a way that ensures an equal and wonderful human existence for us all. If we hold privilege in the society where we reside, we must use our voices for those whose oppression we recognize to be unjust as globally-minded individuals. Let us raise each other up. And let us use our local identifiers as fuel to pursue a global, equal human race.

Sources:

Diamond, Jared. “Yuval Noah Harari on Why Humans Dominate the Earth: Myth-Making.” fc, https://fs.blog/2016/01/why-humans-dominate-earth/ Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.

Easwaran, Eknath. The Upanishads. Nilgiri Press, 2007.

Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Dvir Publishing House Ltd, 2011.

Hembram, Upasana. “How UN Security Council continues monopoly in a multipolar world.” QRIUS, 25 Sept. 2017, https://qrius.com/un-security-council-continues-monopoly-multipolar-world/ Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.