"We are members of one great body. Nature made us relatives... She gave us mutual love and made us sociable."

After World War I, Europe was in chaos. Empires had collapsed, and borders were redrawn. Hundreds of thousands of people found themselves stripped of their citizenship. They were stateless. They had no passports, which meant they couldn't travel, couldn't work legally, and couldn't find a home. They were ghosts in the system.

Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer and scientist. He didn't have to care about these people. He had a comfortable life in Norway. But Nansen viewed himself as a citizen of the world. He believed that the suffering of a Russian or an Armenian was his suffering.

Nansen became the High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations. He invented a brilliant solution: the Nansen Passport. It was a simple document that allowed stateless people to cross borders and settle in new countries. It wasn't issued by a country; it was issued by the international community.

Because of Nansen's idea, 450,000 people were saved. Famous artists, writers, and musicians used Nansen Passports to escape persecution and contribute to the world. Nansen won the Nobel Peace Prize, but he didn't do it for the prize. He did it because he couldn't stand to see a limb of the "great body" of humanity wither and die.

Seneca's quote attacks the idea of tribalism. We tend to think, "I care about my family, and maybe my country, but those people over there are not my problem." Seneca says they are your problem.

Imagine if your left hand was bleeding, and your right hand said, "That's not my problem." You would think the right hand was insane. If the left hand gets an infection, the whole body dies.

We are all relatives. We are all made of the same stuff, stuck on the same rock, facing the same death. Nature gave us "mutual love" (sociability) as a survival mechanism. When we shut off that love, we aren't protecting ourselves; we are cutting off our own circulation.

Errors & Corrections

• Don't limit your care to your own zip code. While you have special duties to those close to you, you cannot be indifferent to the suffering of distant "relatives".
• Don't view life as a zero-sum game. If another member of the body thrives, you thrive. If they suffer, the whole system is degraded.
• Don't wait for the government to be the "connective tissue". You can be the Nansen in your own small way by welcoming the outsider.

Applications to Modern Life

Politics

Refugee crises and immigration are difficult topics. But the Stoic starting point is: "These are members of the same body." We can debate the laws and the logistics, but we cannot debate their humanity. We cannot view them as an infestation. We must view them as displaced relatives and our job is to help them get back to a place where they belong and will serve the greatest good.

Work

In a global economy, you might work with teams in India, the Philippines, or Brazil. It's easy to treat them as just voices on a Zoom call or cheaper market labor. Remember they are members of the body. If you exploit them or treat them poorly, the quality of the work will suffer, and the "body" of the company will become sick.

Social Media

The internet connects the global body, but often in a toxic way. We use it to attack "members" we disagree with. Use the connection for "mutual love". Use your platform to amplify good ideas, support people who are struggling, and spread wisdom. Be a healthy cell in the digital network.

Leadership

A CEO must realize that the company is a body. If the executives take huge bonuses while laying off workers, they are starving the body to feed the head. This always leads to collapse. A Stoic leader ensures that every part of the body is nourished and respected.

Maxims

• The stranger is a relative you haven't met.
• If one suffers, all suffer.
• Be the connective tissue.

In-depth Concepts

Cosmopolitanism

The word comes from Kosmos (world) and Polis (city). The Stoics were the first true cosmopolitans. They believed their primary citizenship was to the human race, not to Athens or Rome. This means that our moral obligations don't stop at the border. We have a duty to justice that extends to every human being on earth.

Philanthropia (Love of Mankind)

This isn't just donating money. For the Stoics, philanthropia was a state of mind. It was a general attitude of benevolence toward the species. It means wishing well to humans simply because they are human. It is the opposite of misanthropy.