Parts, Fragments and Diversity

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” is a well-known truism.  Parts fit together.  A computer for instance.  Take a computer apart and lay all the parts out in front of you.  Each part is not a computer, but each part as a role to play in the whole computer.  Each part is necessary for the whole.

But, what if you take a hammer to the computer and hit it repeatedly?  You end up with fragments.  Is it possible to rebuild the computer from these fragments?  No, they remain fragments.

Social Fragments

When it comes to our community and social life we have a problem when parts of our society are thought of as fragments.  We see this everywhere.  Homeless people are not seen as part of society, nor are those with disabilities.  Others too; refugees, landless farmers in India, teenage mothers or sweatshop workers in SE Asia for instance.  Often not thought of as part of society, but rather as fragments.  The broken and shattered bits of society.

Yet society faces a number of crises.  It is those thought of as fragments that are and will bear the brunt of these crises.  Tackling these crises will require the contribution of all parts of society.  In short, we will need diversity.

Diversity

Diversity is often thought of in terms of difference.  Difference of ethnicity, of country of origin – different cultures.  Fragmentary thinking will over-emphasise the difference between us and tend to separate us.  Sure, we are different, but diversity is also about how we come together and utilise the difference between us.

Diversity is about the difference and about the connection.  It is about parts coming together to produce a whole that is greater than any of us.

Fragmentary thinking is what will stop us solving our collective problems.

Creative and collective thinking, using diversity, is what we need to solve our collective problems.