beyond inclusion: building a world without exclusion

what if we started over?

not in the sense of burning it all down (though, let’s be honest, the temptation is there), but in the sense of rewriting the fundamental assumptions about what a society should be. the united states—like so many nations before and alongside it—has built its identity on exclusions. rights are granted not based on the mere fact of being human, but on membership in a category: citizen, property owner, white, male, straight, cis, wealthy. even when those categories expand, they do so reluctantly, piecemeal, and with the perpetual threat of rollback.

but what if we refused to play that game? what if, instead of fighting for a group’s rights, we fought for a world where human rights were granted to humans because they are human? not parceled out. not conditional. not given today and revoked tomorrow. but inherent, unquestionable, woven into the fabric of existence like breath in the lungs.

ada palmer’s terra ignota series gives us a glimpse of a world where identity is untethered from accident of birth. where people define their own allegiances, their own communities, their own sense of self. a world where gender is as irrelevant to governance as hair color. where nations are voluntary associations, not birthrights.

what would it take to build that world here, in this place, in this moment?

first, we have to reject the scarcity mindset that drives oppression. the belief that rights are a zero-sum game, that granting full humanity to one group somehow diminishes another. this lie has been the backbone of every reactionary movement in history, from the backlash against abolition to the hysteria over trans rights today. if we want something better, we have to uproot this fear at its core.

second, we must dismantle the systems that gatekeep access to dignity. voting rights, bodily autonomy, economic security—these should not be political footballs, granted and rescinded depending on who holds power. they should be fundamental, immutable. and if the existing structures cannot guarantee them, then those structures must go.

third, we need to build decentralized, resilient networks of mutual support. if history has taught us anything, it’s that reliance on a centralized authority to grant and maintain rights is a losing strategy. governments change. laws shift. courts reverse precedent. but a strong, interconnected community? that can weather any storm. that can provide care, safety, and justice when institutions fail—as they so often do.

none of this is theoretical. we already see glimpses of it in anarchist mutual aid networks, in decentralized governance models, in communities that step up where the state steps back. the path forward is not about waiting for permission from those in power. it’s about living as though the world we want already exists—and making it real through action, through care, through defiance.

we do not need another fight for inclusion in a broken system. we need a system that cannot exclude. a world where every person is recognized as fully human, fully autonomous, fully free—not because they meet some arbitrary standard, but simply because they are.