It’s been on my mind for a while to just consider ‘divided’ communities, societies, nations….but a recent UK Radio 4 programme centred around this subject and I thought it was time to proffer a thought or two. I wondered if the commentator thought about his own origins, the dividing cell. An extreme example, apoptosis; the programmed death of cells happens so that the fingers and toes separate rather than being webbed. Dividing is fundamental, with an estimated 8.7 million species sharing the earth; probably originating from the same origin, a hell of a lot of division has already taken place…and the reality is; despite homo sapiens attempts to obliterate them, they AND we are still dividing. The cultural, theosophical, philosophical differences, however nuanced are signs of that. What divides us is the will to power manifest in some of our species. When I meet a Muslim, a Jew, a Jain or an agnostic; and take that as representative of everyone else on the planet, most are friendly. I have been offered hospitality, kindness, support all over the world, and I hope I have reciprocated with others. There are of course lots of people I don’t get on with and I’m sure many who take a disliking to me but we are just different and in most cases we just move on. In primates generally however we accept the idea of a hierarchy, a leader who manages the troop, over our history other members have built valid arguments for why they should lead; the variety of governments, religions, ideologies all evidence that but to maintain a stronghold they form alliances and generally do organise societies but they also hint at threats, manipulate truths, legislate and, most relevantly divide but their nationalism, their group identity, special selectivity is artificial, it swamps the natural cohesiveness and creates an ‘us and them’ culture. This arrangement has worked so far, there has been a need to regulate and contain our own species but needs change. The conflict arising from the manipulated divisions has acted as a brake on numbers but as we persist in our expansion (by mating and dividing!) we must consider new options. The question is; if you believe YOUR particular branch is more important than others you will maintain the divide and rule philosophy in the hope that it will survive, if you see the COLLECTIVE; as you see that is a real ‘me and them’ as important then you will respect division and respect the divided and form alliances able to consider the positive options for humankind
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 10:39:32 +0000