vandermude
It would be interesting to delve deeper into interconnectedness and evolution. I would be interested in the evidence. How interconnectedness comes out of evolution is not self-evident. As to emergence, I posted something on that elsewhere in this discussion group. You will probably find that your viewpoint about emergence and mine are radically different.
The topic of humility should be a separate discussion thread.
As to the NYTimes article, I found it very political. I’m sorry to say that this points out what I am getting at. I would suggest that you do not find it political because it is written from a point of view that you live and breathe. Therefore it seems very natural. It is the environment you swim in.
As a contrast, I have been a Unitarian Universalist since 1984, but up until 2005 I considered my self to be an Ayn Rander and politically a Libertarian. The beliefs and attitudes that my fellow UUs took for granted I could see are not in any way universal.
This political viewpoint comes across very strongly in that article. Consequently, it is hard for the author to understand a competing viewpoint. The whole discussion of privilege is from a particular viewpoint. It includes assumptions about race and class – the way that it is being expressed is relative to a particular viewpoint. There is an assumption of universality, that this particular viewpoint is shared by everyone. It just ain’t so.
As to your belief that the writer would agree with me about language, I have my doubts. Too often, I have experienced people who believe that if you can name it, that in itself is change. My impression is that this person believes that. I do not. Reality cannot be changed just by changing the language. Heaven knows I come across this every day in my professional work as a software engineer. We programmers are very susceptible to this illusion that language changes reality, because software is pure mind-stuff. No, naming it or changing the language is insufficient.