Humans Divide Themselves Isn’t it amazing how we divide ourselves? First of all, we all have to admit we are the same inside. Our body parts are all identical in most cases. Sure, there are some who might have six fingers on their hands or six toes on their feet, but this doesn’t alter their humanity. So, what is the main thing which divides us? I think the biggest dividers are religion, politics and social status. If you said race, I think in the United States we had made great progress, but today there are people trying to set us back so we will hate each other. In my belief what I said about the three main dividers stands. Within these three dividers are sub dividers. Such as clanishism, associations, professions. When I talk about clanishism I am referring to the fact people have a desire to be with their own kind. When people move here, many times they move into neighborhoods where people from their own country are the majority instead of moving in with the general population. This hurts the country because they see no need to learn English, or adapt American ways. Those who move into the general population find they can adapt faster in many areas. Those others find it harder to get jobs. Since they don’t know English many of the times, they are relegated to menial jobs in the community. We foster this by having changed the requirements for citizenship for some people. When I talk about associations I am talking about different clubs and societies. People who belong to these organizations tend to hang out with other people who belong to them and sometimes others who are not members are not welcome into these groups. It is a form of groupthink. This is a relatively new word. Groups don’t even have to belong to associations to think this way. Take the caste system for example. Just by the circumstances of one’s birth makes them better or worse in the social standing. In a way, we have a bit of it right here. It is a caste system based on one’s riches. Don’t expect very rich people to mix with others who are not rich or marry into their families, even though there are a few exceptions. It is hard for the non-rich to understand the life style of the rich. Most people would love to be rich, but people should strive to be better and be able to love and take care of their families and others in need first. Some professionals don’t mix much with the common folk. On top of that they don’t respect them. I am not saying this is true for all professionals, far from it, but there are quite a few and I have met a couple of them. Take the snooty doctor who testifies in court and acts like he knows everything and tries to make the other side look like jerks and is then ruined by the evidence of his incompetence. I have seen this happen so many times. The same is true for some lawyers who actually made fools of themselves. Let me give you an example. One lawyer was representing an oil company during a jury trial. It was a trip over the hose, fall and get injured case. The lawyer laid out a bright yellow hose across the courtroom floor, which at the time I thought was a mistake. He then said to the jury how could anyone not see this hose and intimated they would have to be stupid. He then turned and went to walk back to his seat and fell over the hose. I know if I was a judge, I would have let that stand, but the judge in the case declared a mistrial so he could try the case again. One has to remember most judges are lawyers themselves and associate with these lawyers socially. Let’s get back to the big three, religion, politics and social status. Religion can produce more hate than anything else. Look at what it has done in the Middle East. Muslims hate Christians and Jews in many places. It is not all Muslims that feel this way, but a lot of zealous ones. This causes other people from other religions to be scared of them and react in bad ways and it is bad for all Muslims. Some Christians and Jews hate Muslims because they think they might become victims. But religious hate has been here since the beginning of religion. Look at the religious wars which have been fought. Everyone knows about the Crusades, but there were many others and even in modern times the war between Iraq and Iran was one. It pitted Shia Muslims against Sunni Muslims. Politics is a pseudo-science. Politics is defined as the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power. My definition would be more like the following: A place where people can become great or where others are able to rise to the peak of their incompetency. One of the problems with politics is one countries policies might offend others. Politics exists on the local, state and federal level and some form of this exists all over the world. There is democracy, communism, socialism, tyrannical and royal rule for most of the world. It is very hard for some of these types of governments to get along with some of the other types. Obviously, democracy and communism are the opposite of each other but there are exceptions such as our relationship with Vietnam which has turned out to be very good. It is strange but even hierarchies exist between criminals. The mafia was designed after the ancient Roman army and was quite effective and even though we are not hearing much about them lately they still control a good portion of the crime business. It is said the Japanese Yakuza also has its levels of authority and has roots in the Japanese government. There is a story about a big Japanese auto company having a board meeting and a Yakuza was there and the CEO said something he didn’t like so he walked up to him and in front of the entire board slapped his face and no one dared to move. Can the human race ever get together without a fight? It doesn’t seem so and I believe it would have to take a worldwide catastrophe for that to happen. As President Reagan once said to the United Nations, if aliens invaded the earth, we would soon come together to fight them. That is not an exact quote.
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