Though we live in a reality filled with opportunities to connect across continents and time zones, we are not guaranteed connectedness—authentic and meaningful experience wherein new possibilities are co-generated for ourselves and others. However, our experience in a culture dominated by Western, individualist ethos is typically monologic, a Buberian I-It instrumental relational structure—unidirectional, subject-object relationship. A self relates to the other as secondary, less valuable. Relationships are fragmented, and always subject to suspicion. When cast as separate, bounded beings, people do not carry much responsibility toward one another, perpetuating transactional relationships with less caring, empathy or concern.
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