Respectbeforeculture

Our Belief

The Attitude: A fellow individual social standard

Individual Means Community

All people regardless of skin color, gender, culture, tribe, religion, nationality, etc. are due a basic human individual respect. Our biggest common social problem as human beings is the idea that our cultures (our tribes, religions, nationalities, etc.) make us holistically who we are to the extent that they remove our connection to our fellow human beings outside of that particular culture.

The concept of "the individual" is too often presupposed to be selfish or unsocial but the concept of "fellow individuals" is humankind's broadest and most inclusive base of honest community and connection for all.

Being a unique individual is a condition of being alive. Every human being is an exclusive unique individual person with agency, a unique pinpoint of consciousness and exclusive perspective. Every cultural, tribal, national, religious, gender, skin color or sexual orientation group is made up of unique individuals like you and I. No one can exist as a member of any tribe or culture without first belonging to a more fundamental tribe of fellow unique individuals along with all of our fellow human beings.

We can still respect our religions, cultures, nationalities- render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's- and also maintain a socially healthy individual respect for one another- but the only culture on our planet that can include and benefit absolutely everyone is a universal culture of basic individual respect.

Love

There is no Love without the concept of the individual- to love we need "an other" who is different from us to share our unique perspective with and to get to know theirs. To be "together" is to be with someone else who is not ourselves. To be lonely is to exist in a world where others are hiding their unique perspectives and instead emulating and role-playing what they perceive to be cultural ideals. A church, for example, or school, where all are role playing to rote idealized behaviors but not expressing and sharing their true perspectives can be a lonely soulless place.

We are all fundamentally fellow individual human beings socially first and foremost before we are members of any cultural, religious, national, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, tribal, or any other social group. We should all be appreciative but careful of culture because in the worst case scenario it can lead us to believe and act as if our cultural, tribal or other group identities take priority over the individual human rights and recognition of our fellow human beings outside of the esoteric culture we identify with.

Social Courage over Weakness

We are all susceptible to the warmth of esoteric community. When we feel attacked because of a skin color, gender, cultural or religious group we belong to it can feel necessary or socially warm to bind together in that group. It takes courage to respect the perspectives and human rights of our other fellow human beings who are of a different gender, skin color, culture, religion, tribe, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. than us. We may be more comfortable with our "local" ways of speaking, food, clothing and music choices, our choice of how we worship- or don't worship or believe in- a God or religion. Since we ALL have fellow unique individuality and unique perspectives in common with ALL human beings of ALL cultures, religions, tribes, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, skin colors, etc.- we ALL have a moral obligation to not define ourselves as part of an inherently separate group apart from these fellow human beings in terms of basic human individual rights and freedom. There can be room for cultural diversity and reverence to God based on an underlying social bridge of individual respect among our fellow human beings who may, or may not, share our cultural or religious values.

The first step on the path of honest social connection and community is recognizing and accepting your unique individuality and that of everyone else - all human beings. The enemy of this is the attitude that we can define ourselves by skin color, cultural, tribal, religious, national, sexual orientation, or physical challenge groups. We are lost when we lose sight and respect of our individuality- our unique pinpoint of consciousness- that you exist here and have agency- and lose sight and respect for all others.

It may appear that we live in a world divided into fundamentally separate groups according to skin color, gender, nationality, culture or religion but this is an illusion. We live in a world fundamentally socially of fellow individual human beings a lot like ourselves. Peace begins with all of us recognizing ourselves and all others as the unique, valid individual persons that we, and they, actually are. Too many of us are living our lives on cultural autopilot having found a cultural group that we can define ourselves by- safe from both our individual perspectives and questions- and safe from engaging our fellow human being's individuality and the learning and personal and societal growth that can be had thereby.

We as human beings are each born the same as pre-cultural blank slate individuals before we learn to define and divide ourselves according to skin color, gender, culture, nationality, etc.- and we maintain our individual unique perspectives throughout our lives here if we only dare to reach outside of our cultural biases to engage our perspectives and enjoy that of others.

For a better, more peaceful and fairer society we should always lead ourselves with a basic individual respect towards our fellow human beings- and culture should always comes afterward. There are no skin color, gender, cultural, religious, or national groups that are not made up of our fellow individual human beings. When we believe that “who we are” by definition is our culture or skin color or gender or religion, nationality, sexual orientation or tribe- we cannot honestly relate to our fellow human beings as such and give them the basic unbiased respect that they deserve. We must begin with our individual selves- and our unique, exclusive perspective and pinpoint of action- before we can honestly relate to God or any religion, culture or philosophy that we revere or want to explore.

Our fellow human beings cannot be reduced holistically to what they look like to us. If we truly respected people individually, all bigotry, racism and sexism would be erased immediately. When certain skin colors, ethnicities, or genders have systematic advantages or disadvantages in a society the answer to more fairness and equity of opportunity is to promote and insist on (as a fundamental human right) more individual respect among ourselves- a value relevant to ALL people- not to further division by propping up skin color, ethnicity or gender in an ever-escalating power play premised on assumed division rather than foundational basic individual respect.

Our Common Problem

A principal enemy of peace in our world is the attitude that one's skin color, gender, culture, religion, tribe, shared experience, nationality or some other group is the essence of who we are among others. This attitude is false and should never be the case if we are honest with ourselves about who we, and our fellow human beings, truly are. Tremendous harm has been done in our world by rationalizing the violation of the individual rights and human respect for others in the name of "those are 'a people' who are fundamentally not like 'our people'". In reality there are no "other peoples" that are not fundamentally socially "your fellow individual people" on our planet- and "they"- just as you- are due basic human rights and individual respect.

While it is normal to view the world around us through lenses of culture that we socialize into- it is not normal to define ourselves by culture which invariably links us to an esoteric special tribe of people in our minds. We are fellow individuals wearing lenses of culture- we are not the lenses themselves.

Racism, Sexism. Discrimination, Bigotry

We are all unique individuals living together but the problem is that we are not all respected as the individuals we are and instead are group-labeled by our skin color, gender, physical challenge, sexual orientation, or some other association. There can be no prejudice, racism, sexism, or any other discrimination where there is true individual respect- Individual respect makes these offences impossible. While it is critical to examine and empathize with what it means to have black, brown or white skin or be male or female or to appear to be of Asian or Native American descent or be homosexual or be deaf or blind or mentally ill or impoverished in society- it is also important to remember that our fellow people above deserve the individual respect that everyone should have and should live lives free from being forced to define themselves by their skin color, gender, physical appearance, sexual orientation, physical challenge, illness, or financial position throughout heir lives. They should be free to be judged by the content of their character.

On a planet of 8 billion people we cannot expect every esoteric aspect of our separate esoteric cultures to always dominate between ourselves- we need common ground to communicate, share love and friendship, problem solve and grow together. We benefit greatly from cultural diversity but we need to celebrate and respect and promote individual diversity as well for a healthy social environment for all of us together.

American Ideals And Values

The opposite of the American "All Men Are Created Equal" individually respective ideal is the idea that society should be controlled and dominated by certain cultural or religious or even skin color groups who value group rights over the individual rights and votes of a diverse citizenry of people who may value freedom and liberty over dogma and a priority of social and cultural conformity.

The groups that we human beings feel connected to such as tribe, religion, nationality, tradition, shared experience or even skin color or gender can become a perceived culture that we- or others- feel separates us fundamentally from other perceived permanent groups of human beings. We view the world around us through powerful lenses of language culture, or religion. But these lenses can never remove the individual which is the primary basis of who we are among all others socially. There has never been- and never will be- such a thing as a culture that is not intrinsically comprised of individual people. Even a remote tribe who have no words in their language for "me" or "I" can still delineate between themselves. The individual in social context is a human condition that we can never escape from.

Our cultures- no matter how powerful- can- and will- never "make us who we are" to the extent that we are not fundamentally individuals socially with individual respect obligations to all of our fellow human beings.

We have obligations as fellow individuals when we share common space together. We ought to recognize that all others are valid individual people like ourselves- try to empathize with their different perspective- and try to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves while keeping in mind the possibility of dealing with a different cultural context- reciprocity.

Every person living in society should never forget that they were born individual blank slates culturally, religiously, or nationally just as every other human being was- and that every other person of any skin color, gender, religion, culture, tribe, nationality or sexual orientation- just as they themselves do- has an absolutely unique, valid individual perspective on our world around us- and thus we all belong to the all inclusive tribe of individually respective human beings before we are members of any esoteric cultural tribe intrinsically apart as a group from our fellow human beings.

The Attitude: A fellow individual social standard

What You Can Do

When seeing someone else-

try to see a fellow human being- like yourself- FIRST and Foremost- before seeing a skin color, gender, culture, religion, nationality, etc. and try to give them the basic individual respect that you would want for yourself.

You can try to NOT immediately see a skin color, gender, or appearance first and immediately think you know what that person is about.

Trying the above for at least 30 seconds with every person you encounter will contribute to making our world a much better place.

Are we to be judged principally by what we look like to others? Does someone know all about us simply because we have white, black or brown skin, are female or male, or belong to a certain nationality or religion? We do not all have white, black, or brown skin. We are not all male or female. We are not all born again Christian or Muslim or Jewish, Buddhist, or Atheist. We are not all French, American, Spanish, Mexican, or Chinese. We are not all blind or of 20/20 vision. We are not all gay or straight. We do not all speak Pashtun or Farsi.

We ARE all fellow individual unique people with absolutely unique perspectives and unique points of action sharing a finite planet. We are all fellow individual people living together. We were born the same individually and will die individually. We are family in this way. This is our commonality by which to govern ourselves when our separate cultural governance is not broad enough to include all of us inclusively or fairly. This is our common denominator and bridge of community and cooperation. Should we find ourselves in a large hall needing to cooperate together to defeat some impending immediate emergency challenge should we use Farsi or Spanish? French or American cultural norms or Nigerian ones? All of these are not broad enough to get everyone's cooperation in a hurry. Our only alternative is the language and culture that we all innately understand as fellow human beings- our mutually beneficial common language of cooperation through individual respect. This common emergency may be any number of things- and the "large hall" is turning out to be our planet Earth.

This cross-cultural language that all can innately relate to, understand and respect is the fellow individual social standard.

Challenging Individually dis-respective attitudes from the Right and the Left

One commonality of the right and the left is a tendency to perceive and not like certain groups of people that they see as intrinsically not like themselves. Our cultures do not make us who we are holistically- we are still fundamentally fellow individual people socially.
From the Right is often a lack of recognition of the reality that black, brown and female individuals are far too often not treated and respected as equal individuals and the failure to realize that, in the western world, on the whole, white skinned people are more free to lead individual lives without as much systemic interference as non-whites.

From the right there can be a minority of white people who actually define themselves as White Christian Americans among all others and fear a sort of racial darkening of America and feel threatened by cultural values that are not white traditional Christian values. These folks need to be reminded that our principle founding fathers Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Washington, Paine and Hamilton were not evangelical Christians and did not desire to base our nation on Evangelical Christianity but on the enlightenment where individuals decided to pursue religion- or not- based on their own introspection and conscience.

From the right too many for too long have discounted black slavery as the significant irony that it actually is in a country that was founded on the principle that All Men Are Created Equal. The black experience in America is the historical illustration of the human and American strive for individual freedom, liberty and opportunity and must be essential curriculum in our young people's education along with the struggle of Women and Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and poor Americans. The struggle of individuals within these groups is a tremendous and essential part of our American story- It cannot be told accurately otherwise.

From the left a problem is a belief among many that white individuals have benefited from, and therefore are liable for, injustices committed by other white people and that this should override the individual agency and personal accountability of their individual lives- that they- having white skin- are thereby complicit in being intrinsically a part of the collective White Animal and can be labeled white people instead of valid fellow individual people worthy of individual respect.

There is also the movement among many on the left towards a non-white collectivism (which can never lead to true freedom in society) of permanent separate tribes of non-white and white rather than towards an open society of free interacting fellow individual people where skin color and gender are only considered after individual respect for all.

Any person who wants Individual freedom for themselves and others must ask themselves if they want a world where people are individually free or a world permanently divided into separate groups according to skin color (which can never be individually free for anyone.)

What RBC looks like in practice

The Attitude: A fellow individual social standard

What RBC looks like in practice

Respect Before Culture in practice looks like :

A traffic stop sign anywhere in our shared world applies to all who encounter it regardless of nationality, culture, tribe, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. To function this involves a mindset of mutual individual cooperation among participants regardless of whatever group or culture that one feels one belongs to.

Elementary school kids could be taught to see and respect a fellow student as a fellow person like themselves first and to see gender, skin color, religion, lingual accent, etc. only afterward and the attitude that it is wrong to not try to give a basic respect to everyone individually. At age appropriate later years students should be taught that skin color and gender are real social factors to be dealt with in society but that the goal of those seeking justice is to have everyone respected individually regardless of skin color, gender, sexual orientation, physical challenge etc. and that none of us are really individually free as long as all of us are not free of racism and sexism, etc.

A neighborhood made up of Christian families and Muslim families and Gay people and Asian Americans and Atheists and other groups where all get along well based on a mutual understanding and ethic of basic individual respect among each other.

A white skinned American telling a black skinned American not "I don't see skin color" but rather " I respect you as a unique individual but I understand the reality and injustice of you often not being given the individual respect that I receive because of your skin color- and I'm willing to speak up and vote to correct that injustice. As fellow individual people we're on the same team against individual disrespect and prejudice. We're in this together- and a status quo of people being discriminated against automatically because of their skin color or gender, or by name of their faith or sexual orientation needs to end now- this is not consistent with American values ."

A young person living on a native American reservation being "all in" in accepting and respecting her tribe, heritage and culture but also insisting on identifying with others of other nationalities, cultures and skin colors as her fellow unique individual people with whom she should be free to engage the world as an equal member of the tribe of the people of the Earth- her imagination, aptitudes and work ethic should be allowed to empower her with whatever aspiration she has planned for herself. Perhaps she will one day be a geneticist that has no qualm with being true to her tribal heritage beliefs and tradition while also exploring the science of the commonality of her ancient ancestors with those of all peoples of our world.

A White American father teaching his white son that America was founded on great principles of individual freedom and liberty for all but that women and people of color have historically been systematically disadvantaged as individuals in American society and that this practice has not lived up to American principles of liberty and freedom. America can and will be great but it is the patriotic duty of American citizens to make sure that all Americans are treated with a basic individual respect regardless of gender, skin color, religion or non-religion or sexual orientation- that there can be no traditional cultural litmus test of conformity to a perceived cultural or religious majority for individual freedom- and that this freedom allows society to evolve and improve.

A Latina American mom teaching her Latina American daughter that upon encountering discrimination from white skinned people or anyone else to remember that fundamentally she is a valid unique individual person just as anyone else is- no more and no less- and that she should demand to be treated as the valid human being that she truly is.

We have obligations as fellow individuals when we share common space together. We ought to recognize that all others are valid individual people like ourselves- try to empathize with their different perspective- and try to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves while keeping in mind the possibility of dealing with a different cultural context- reciprocity.

When we attempt to analyze a situation to determine fairness such as a crime study we should always factor in the individual perspectives and behavior of those involved with individual respect in mind in addition to considering social, historical and cultural context. No individual should be over-generalized as merely a cultural component without considering their individual point of view and context.