I came across the word 'ubuntu' in reference to an operating system, a linux for home pc's and macs. But in fact it is also a Bantu (southern african) folk philosophical idea. The company behind the open source software is south African and names the system in the idea's honour. see wikipedia ubuntu . It is a hard concept to translate directly but means none and all of the below.
"Humanity towards others"
"I am because we are"
"A person 'becomes human' through other persons"
"A person is a person because of other persons"
"the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity"
I would like to have this word at my disposal. It captures the pie-eyed collective spirit of young blokes out on the piss in Stoke. It can be felt in the air on football terraces and it peeps out from between the magnificent collective inconsequentially of flickr. It's mercurial teenage form scuttles around myspace every day. It sounds more interpersonal than 'fraternity' more profound than 'camaraderie' and more tribal than 'belonging'.
Bain
