Inclusion is a loaded word. It can mean so many things to so many different people. Inclusion signifies power. Those who are included are trying to embrace the excluded (sometimes); the ones with the power are now including the ones without the power (sometimes). And it is so much harder to include others than to want to be included by others. And inclusion is one of the many areas where social media can blueprint the future worldwide.
It’s about permitting rather than permission
Inclusion is more than words, more than permitting access. It must enable access. The desire to include is not the same as including. Inclusion means that there is exclusion and we all know that there is exclusion on this planet, in this hemisphere, in this nation, this state, this county, this city. We humans excel at excluding each other. Private club, gated community, security guards; friending this person, ignoring that one; if you’re in you’re in and if you’re out, you are all the way out.
Let’s face it, inclusion feels good. It sounds good, feels all warm and fuzzy and makes us seem so wonderful. We so desperately want to be included that it makes us feel so giving when we can include someone. Inclusion, when there is rampant exclusion, is a great thing. But inclusion is inherently as wrong as exclusion. If someone is including you then someone else is being excluded. More than that, if someone is including you then someone else can exclude you. No news there.
So what are we left with? It’s not a message that simply says: inclusion good, exclusion bad. Sorry, that’s too simple. Thought is involved, a desire is involved, a need to act is involved, the acts themselves are involved and the vision that lets us see our own higher goals in a way that pushes us toward them peacefully and with great determination is involved. And that’s all okay because, simply, it all comes to this: Inclusion is wonderful and it’s time to stop needing it, wanting it, celebrating it. There should no more be inclusion than there should be exclusion. There should simply be “is” and social media can go a long way in helping us attain that. Social inclusion via media; what are you doing?
Still Amazed 