What is lacking is the element of SOLIDARITY. Solidarity means that you are committed to the other person because he or she is fundamentally valuable. You don’t look at the other primarily in terms of a return on an investment, but rather you see them as someone who fundamentally deserves love and caring for their own sake, and not only for what they can DO for you. In religious language, we need to see other people as created in the image of God, and to respond to them with awe and amazement, recognizing them as embodiments of God’s spirit.
Instead, too many people treat each other as a mere means to enhance our own egos, pleasure, economic security, or to fulfill some other needs we have. But the more this is true, the less stability there is in any relationship. People can never be certain that their partner won’t find someone who will fill more of their needs. And if they do, they will leave us for this other person, because our value is measured primarily in terms of how many needs we can fulfill. And inside relationships, people feel more lonely, because they see that their partners are so involved in taking care of their own needs that they don’t have much space for anyone else.
No wonder people feel insecure today. When we live in a world in which people are not able to see each other as fundamentally valuable, as created in the image of God – as mini-miracles who should elicit our sense of awe and wonder – than everyone starts to feel less safe. The selfishness that fills our economic world begins to shape every other part of life, too. Families and relationships begin to fall apart. You can’t live in a society that teachers selfishness, materialism, and “looking out for number one” all day in the world of work and then expect that people won’t act this way when they get home. As a result, there is a huge spiritual and ethical crisis in this society – a crisis rooted in the bottom-line consciousness of the world of work…….
Spirituality refers to an orientation to reality in which we respond to the universe (and to each other) with awe, wonder, and amazement, as opposed to looking at the universe (and each other) primarily from the standpoint of how we can use it (or each other) to advance our own economic, political or ego goals. Right now, it’s virtually impossible to get workplaces or government or media to create space for us to integrate our spiritual insights or sensitivity into our daily lives. (The Politics of Meaning Intro. Letter)
