The first step to achieving mutual recognition with a global “other” is to stop seeing them as an “other.”
Even when helping other countries or refugees, there has almost always been an ulterior motive or a dissenting party. A country may help an “other” during a war, only to expect payment back. A country may take in refugees for a period of time, but then stop when someone with a different view takes power. America broke the frontier of science by landing on the moon, only to prove that Americans were better than Russians. We broke the boundary between Earth and space just to place a stronger boundary between us and Russia.
Of course, lots of us do set down boundaries. We help refugees, we do things for the sake of goodness, we aid other countries, we go to space for the sake of discovery and for humanity. But far too many people are so tied up in their belief of clinging to artificial boundaries, that it’s unrealistic for humanity, at this point, to exist as just humanity. For now, we are fragments of humanity.
Hopefully, someday, we will be able to defeat the idea of an “other” entirely.
But for now, as an American, even just looking at our country, we can see it riddled with “otherness.” How can the entire world come together when a singular nation can’t? America isn’t the only one like this either. Across the globe, we’re not only divided by continent and by country, but by race, religion, gender, sexuality, and economic status. So how can Americans embrace the British, Russians, Indians, Pakistanis, the Japanese, etc. if Americans can’t even embrace Americans?