Becoming begins when belonging ends.

Safety in sameness keeps the machinery running. Progress demands the courage to step outside it.

Belonging creates safety. It aligns incentives, reduces friction, and optimizes cooperation. From an operational standpoint, it is rational. Every system—corporate, academic, political—relies on individuals accepting their roles within it. But the very mechanisms that preserve cohesion also inhibit transformation. What keeps things running efficiently is precisely what prevents them from evolving.