The Hebrew bible story about the tower of Babel is an attempt to explain the different languages, and by extension, cultures of the human race. In many ways throughout the centuries thinkers have taken these differences as a rally cry to look at those aspects of human life that bring us together – as we know merely preaching filial love achieves very little worldwide. Music and sport have long been the two chosen as exemplars of this but people also know having a common enemy brings antagonists together. And the enemy could be as much disease as other people.
But perhaps this attempt is not fully rounded enough, for amongst the ideas that propel people to try to bring tribes together is the obvious fact that this is a single planet and what happens on one side of it often impacts others through climate. It is the eco-system that truly binds us together, and it is the eco-system that we are putting into crisis, that will bring us together. The planet is the friend like no other and the enemy we could never beat.
To be at war with the planet through untrammeled exploitation is to be at war with ourselves. Pacifying our greed and working together whatever the cultures and language, are not a worthy aim but our only means of survival.