CONCEPT OF UNITY IN DIVERSITY (UDI-ISM)

What is diversity? One fundamental world view of this concept is that each and every human being has a free will, and that all human beings allow others to exercise their free wills unless conflicts occur. When conflicts between individuals’ free wills occur, many problems arise. Diversity means the preservation of individual’s right of free-will choices. Unity in diversity is, by the choice of words, not the same as unity by conformity. Unity in Diversity means seeking unity while preserving diversity. Thus, unity is to be achieved not by force. More importantly, unity is not a static or absolute goal that is universally imposed on or accepted by everyone. It represents a common set of goals and their relative values freely emerging in consensus from the diverse goals and their relative values to the individuals. As individuals continue to change their relative values among their diverse goals, any consensus of unity, i.e., the subset of majority-subscribed common goals, will also change.
Religion and morality are not necessary elements for discussions about unity. If the majority chooses a single religion or a single set of black and white morality standards, they may try to make that the goal for unity. Whether they succeed or not depends on the amount of power or control they have over the community in which they live -- more specifically, over others in the community who do not subscribe to their view. The form of government becomes the key factor. In a properly balanced society, “tyranny by one, a few, or the majority” must be prevented to protect the minority. Given such a democratic society with protection for the minority, because of the free wills of the individuals, that unity will only be achieved when the minority’s free wills are persuaded to follow the majority’s goal.
In this world view then, critical thinking, reason and logic are also essential elements which enable the system to function. People are not forced to follow. People must be persuaded to change their minds. For minds to be changed with certain degree of permanence there must be a rational basis for the persuasion.
What is unity then? Unity is the striving for a common set of goals or desirable conditions that the entire population wants to have. We may call it the pursuit of Public Good.