It is absolutely weird to see human beings to promote differences and discrepancies among one another even though they have been suffering from its negative consequences to a large extent. Though, it is a natural fact that there are distinctions among different human beings and human groups, highlighting these distinctions to such an extent where they become disagreements and conflicts are not natural. There are so many difference that human beings have created themselves, use the same to separate themselves from and others and have, as a result, spoiled their societies.

One of the main differences that human beings have in their societies is the class difference. Human beings, by the dint of the socio-economic setup that they have created, have been divided into rich and poor. Only few people have access to most of the wealth in the world and thus enjoy all the luxuries of life, while on the other hand there are destitute who do not have even enough food to eat. This class distinction has promoted a sort of imbalance within the society, and is the root of so many social evils. People, mostly of the poor class, are not contented with the way of their living and thus strive to bring about changes; therefore, they, in the process, violate laws, forget ethics and question the very existence of a socio-economic order wherein they have only suffering as their fortune.

Then there are religions and different sects in religion that have divided human beings into different groups. Even though, the existence of different religions and religious sects can be accepted as necessary, the distinctions and discrepancies that are promulgated by the so-called guardians of the religions have only given rise to conflicts and wars. It is not impossible for the followers of different religions to think and talk of similarities among each other and, thus, create an environment that is peaceful and supportive; nonetheless, they have pursued the differences and, in the process, have made one another enemies, instead of friends. Even the followers of the same religion, on the name of different sects, have become each other’s foes and do not hesitate to kill each other mercilessly. Consider the example of Syria, Iraq and even Pakistan – the wars between different sects of Islam take the lives of many innocent people every day.

Nationalism is also a set of beliefs that encourage human beings to divide on the basis of race, origin and culture. Blinded by extremist nationalistic beliefs, human beings have carried out such cruelties against one another that it is hard even to imagine about them. From the rise of the nation-states to the world wars, the nationalistic beliefs kept on widening the gap among human beings and took them to the threshold of extinction. Extremist nationalism under the leadership of Hitler promulgated nothing except hatred and war and it carried out the worst sort genocide against the Jews. Although, currently, especially after the rise of globalization, the phenomenon has become less devastating, there are still the nations in the world that consider themselves the superior to all others and even believe that others do not have the right to live and must, therefore, be annihilated. There are now talks and discussion about ‘clash of civilizations’ that considers that our world is divided in different civilizations with clear distinctions and that the history would evolve by clashes among these civilizations. Voltaire had rightly quoted, “So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.” 

That’s what we require – the citizens of the universe; the individuals who consider themselves not connected to minor and limited groups like sects, nations and classes but to the entire human race; who have big hearts where people from all the corners of the world can be compensated without any distinction.  

It is time for human beings to understand the fact that distinctions, conflicts, and wars have given human beings nothing except miseries and troubles. It is really essential for human beings to think above all these differences. They have to consider this very basic fact that they are human beings and this alone is enough to bring them together. Dalai Lama puts it very nicely, “Despite the superficial differences between us, we need to have a sense that all 7 billion human beings belong to one human family.” That is how we require thinking – we need to realize that we can be one family; though we may have distinctions, but not discrepancies. As a human family we have many challenges to face and we have to strive to overcome those challenges instead of creating hurdles for each other and pushing each other in thorns. We have the curse of poverty, the horrors of wars, the menace of pollution, the indiscriminate use of weapons and the whole universe to discover. These should be our aim as human beings, not bombing others in their houses in mosques, not attacking others because they belong to other race and their skins are of different color, not discriminating others because they belong to a poor family and do not have proper cloth to wear and no nothing of civilization. We have to think bigger; we are human beings and we are blessed with the most intelligent of the minds, and we have to prove it.