What does the term “we” mean?

What does the term “we” mean?

Several times my thoughts recently have gone to the variation in usage of the word “we”. I, as an Idealist Temperament person, INFP psychetype, and having Asperger’s Syndrome social handicap, tend to have a rather loose-ended inclusion in my “we”; if i am talking to an individual, “we” usually includes that person and myself. Yet it also can include whoever else I happen to have thought of recently. (The term “they” also has similar level of loose-identification, usually “those people who do such-and-so” and not including myself.)

My pragmatic Artisan former wife puzzled me often, when in conversation with only me present, she exclusively used the term “we” to mean she and her family of origin (and not including me.)

Another usage of the term “we” that comes to mind now is the popular boombox throb heard frequently in the public parks, back about 15 years ago (when I was first trying to get people to notice KESTS to GEO concept) played by the teenagers (who by now are middle-aged adults...) that went “We will, we will... rob you! We will, we will ... rob you!” shouted simultaneously by a group of male and female voices, over and over again hypnotically; the booming sound throbbed over and over again across the grassy park areas, where I had bicycled to with naive desperate hopes of finding some sweet young woman to be my loving companion.

Perhaps I have special concern for the usage of term “we”, because I have so-called “belongingness issues” ... probably a function of my Asperger’s Syndrome’s urge to happily be with other people yet not having the built-in common set of social instincts that guide non-Asperger social interactions; also lack of siblings and not much family contact ... and also my earliest days of life were in a preemie’s isolation booth, cold and bright and touchless, missing the physical touch that is so necessary for instincts of knowing love and care, which probably accounts for my hunger for loving contact with woman all my adult life. (The other meanings of physical contact which others have, such as boxing or football or spousal abuse, are “crazy-makers” for me, however.)

So the term we” needs to be heavily laced into the ongoing context, for definition, to have any accurate meaningfulness, as it no longer means “you and me” for sure. “We will, we will ... rob you...” even uses the term “we” to exclude me, for example.

When I say “In processes far beyond conventional ways of doing, we need to quickly research and build the KESTS to GEO transportation structure, so as to provide us a pathway to produce facilities for clean electric abundant power worldwide, cleanup of toxins produced by industrial wastes we produce, enable vast new construction of living space for expansion for the next generation’s great well-being” I refer to “we” as being all humanity, since all would benefit. But unfortunately, most of humanity is very busy doing something else now, does not include me in their activities, and their ”we” excludes me. It appears that if eventually they do create KESTS to GEO type future opportunities, they will deliberately do it without me. Strange world this is, it seems to me.

I recall the joke going around when I was a youngster, that referred to the Western cowboy hero “The Lone Ranger” and his faithful Indian friend Tonto. The joke goes, ”The Lone Ranger and Tonto were out riding in the desert one day, and suddenly a band of Indians in war paint charged down on them, whooping and shooting arrows at them. The Lone Ranger turns to Tonto and says “What are we going to do?”, to which Tonto replies, “What do you mean “we”, Paleface?”

(Further semantic confusion comes in when I recall that the native American peoples were erroneously named “Indians” by Columbus, since he thought he had sailed around the world to the country of India, at the time he had actually encountered the America landmasses. But the incorrect name “Indians” stuck. Now, of course, it is known that the real “India” Indians are of a vast country laced with ancient wisdoms and creativity, such as the recently found “Laughter Yoga” process which has so much healthy promise for all the peoples of the world.)

So who are we, anyway?