SubwayTakes posted an interview discussing the Beatles. I understood the core idea to be — you can’t have just one favorite Beatle, you end up needing all 4. The sound existed the way it did because all 4 Beatles were present — it wasn’t just one person’s show. They are the sum of their parts — they are a collective. Click here for the video.
Apparently, large brained humans — like ourselves — existed at least half a million years earlier than prevailing scientific consensus. Skulls were discovered in China. Click here for the BBC article.
My take is this:
You and I belong to a group of animals — Homo sapiens. We are an ancient species. We persist through cooperation, tribalism, wariness of outsiders, etc. And, in spite of all the messiness that comes from being human, we still persist.
I imagine a reason we persist is because we know that we need each other to survive. And needing each other doesn’t imply rainbows and bunnies; our history acquiring labor is messy. The point is not about morality, the point is that we recognize a need for others — that we are the sum of our parts.
Another reason we might persist is due to our curiosity. Humans are naturally curious about the world around them. We are curious about each other. We are curious about what we can see and can’t see. We wonder and wander. And, we organize ourselves together to be curious collectively about things.
So what if we started becoming more curious about that which is different from us? The humans who are not like us. Pick any attribute that makes someone different from you, what prevents you from being curious about that difference? What stops you from trying to learn more about someone else? Seeing the world the way they see the world. Perhaps you might learn something about your own world.
It’s not lost on me that saying be curious about the people in other tribes is easier said than done. Some attributes of people you might hate or disgust. I recommend that you lean into those emotions — determine why you might feel that way and consider the alternative — what if you could feel a different way?
The Beatles are the sum of their parts, they are also a group that leaned into the counter-culture and asked what if. Not entirely different from ancient ancestors who, I imagine, did something similar.