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Please Note: This is just an observation – an analysis of strategies to unite or divide people. Choosing US as that’s the country I’ve spent the majority of the last 10 years in. The strategy analysis applies to every single country. Divide and Conquer is being used by every set of politicians in the World.

This post is inspired by three things -

1. Matt Tiabbi’s Griftopia, or to be more precise - the first half of it.
2. The people upset that free Christian books are mentioned on this blog (which is quite often, given nearly 50% of offers are Christian books).
3. Chanakya, an Indian strategist and advisor. He was a wiser and, arguably, more effective strategist than Machiavelli. In particular, one of his works -
   

   For the better of the family, one member should be forgotten.
   For the better of the village, one family should be forgotten.
   For the better of the kingdom, one village should be forgotten.
   For the better of yourself, the world should be forgotten.

If you look at all the conflict in the world today, and in particular at the conflict in the US, it’s all conflict created by supposed ‘leaders’ looking to increase their control and power – at the expense of the happiness of the people they supposedly lead.

The division over Religion, and the whole conflict between Republicans and Democrats, are both strange things. The US is one country – it’s one people. There’s no reason on Earth to create a division among the people of one country. Yet, politicians have managed to do it.

College in Florida, in the Bible Belt, and working in Seattle, in the liberal Pacific North-West, were not that different. There are good people in both places. 99% of the people are good people. You make them neighbours, and they’ll get along fine, and almost certainly like each other.

Yet, for some strange reason, there’s this whole Republocrat vs Demican illusion. That more important than happiness and prosperity and unity, is some war to preserve your beliefs and way of life. Beliefs and way of life that aren’t under attack anyways.

No matter how scientifc you are, or how religious you are. No matter whether you are conservative, or liberal. There’s always this message passed on that your way of life is under threat, and the only way you can save it is by voting for these politicians who are taking your tax money, and channeling it to the people who stole your retirement fund.

Why it seems as if your Beliefs and Way of Life are under threat

As Matt Tiabbi’s Griftopia puts it - It’s a circus to distract us from the fact that we are being exploited, and played for fools. If we are constantly worrying about our precious beliefs, we never worry about our relatively less precious money and quality of life.

Who cares if your life sucks – You have your precious beliefs to hold on to.

Beliefs that were never under much threat. Beliefs you could have had safe and sound, in addition to a much better quality of life, and a united country.

Politicians are using Divide and Conquer to Skin People Alive

If Chanakya had been an American politician, his aphorism would be -

For control of the family, make the members fight each other.
For control of the village, make the clans fight each other.
For control of the kingdom, make the villages and religions fight each other.
For the better of yourself, the world should be exploited.

It’s an interesting choice. Interesting because it’s only sustainable if people are stupid and naive.

What happens with smart people?

Well, unfortunately, they usually fail to see through things. We don’t just need smart people - we need people who are smart about their beliefs, and the supposed threat to them.

Can a Government or a group of people hurt Jesus? Not really.

Can a Government or a group of people kill Science? Not really.

Perhaps, instead of worrying about these over-inflated threats, smart people should figure out who’s running the projector broadcasting these illusions. Then, instead of being touchy about religion and science, people will be touchy about what’s happening to them and their country.

And it’s happening in almost every country in the world – This exploitation of people while they’re being given the lollipop of ‘protecting your beliefs’ to suck on.

The Two Options

In a sense, you can approach a large, strong country from two angles -

1. Create a Shared Purpose and unite the country. That’s what happens when you have a Space Race, or a technological or arms race against another country, or have some big war (like Hitler attacking Britain).
2. Divide and Conquer. Take existing differences and magnify them, or create totally artificial differences, and split open a nation.

It’s so strange that now, in most countries in the world, divide and conquer is the favored method. People are being turned against one another.

If tomorrow, we discovered an alien race were threatening Earth, we’d have people banding together instantly – because a real threat creates a shared purpose. Yet, those same people are happily killing each other, or scheming against each other.

Shared Purpose extends to the World

Let’s say you somehow managed to get all the people in the world into a room. Here are the things they’d probably be most concerned about -

1. Everyone being able to get the bare minimum food and shelter. 
2. Having a better quality of life.
3. The really big problems – Exploring Space, Clean Water, Clean Energy, a better life for everyone. 
4. Ending wars. No one wants to fight wars if they can be avoided.
5. Progress. A better life for our kids.
6. Enjoying Life.
7. Doing what they want to, with their life – freedoms of various kinds.
8. A more secure life. Less danger, less uncertainty.

On the other hand, if you got all the politicians in the world into a room, this is what they’d be most concerned about -

1. How they can continue to stay in power. 
2. How they can get more power. 
3. How they can keep fooling people.
4. How they can keep exploiting people and keep getting more and more out of them. 
5. How they can maintain the illusion that politicians want the best for people.

The fact that people trust politicians, and get stuck in imaginary and meaningless worries, is the reason we focus on very few of the things in the first list.

Of course, there’s one big element which we can’t disregard.

Everyone acts in their own self-interest

This underlies the whole Divide and Conquer vs Shared Purpose debate.

Everyone wants what’s best for them, and a little more than what others are getting. That’s just reality.

So when people are using Divide and Conquer, both the threat of losing your beliefs, and the greed of imposing your beliefs on others, are presented. Similarly, to make Shared Purpose work, you have to show how shared self-interest will lead to more benefit for everyone. If you can’t, then it won’t work.

Consider the Alien Invaders scenario – There’s instant benefit for everyone. You get to live if you band together. If you don’t band together, your chances go down.

All you have to do is create a similar proposition – A win-win scenario that clearly provides more benefits than any win-lose or lose-lose scenarios.

There are more than enough Areas to developed Shared Purpose on

Unfortunately, we have quite a few problems that could be used to bring together people -

1. Poverty.
2. Water shortages.
3. Ridiculously huge income equalities.
4. Energy.
5. Space Exploration, or the lack thereof.
6. Dependency on Earth. Isn’t it strange that we never worry about the fact that we are 100% dependent on one planet.
7. Politicians.

The good thing is, it’s happening. The Internet and world travel have brought people closer to each other, and made people a lot smarter about a lot of things.

The bad thing is, people tend to fixate on their polarity i.e.

1. Either people start believing that only shared purpose exists, and that people don’t act out of self-interest. These are people who think there can be world peace automatically.
2. Or people start believing that only self-interest exists, and there can never be shared purpose. These are people who think war is a natural and necessary state.

We don’t know what the natural state is. We do know that there’s a chance it’s a state better than the current state – all of us getting exploited, and paying for the manipulators to have a grand life.

Politicians depend on religious beliefs and core beliefs for Divide and Conquer - as people get smarter and smarter, Politicians need stronger and stronger tools of manipulation. There’ll be a time when we look back, and find it sadly amusing that we fell for such obvious trickery.

Is there hope for Shared Purpose - will it be able to defeat Divide and Conquer?

It’s inevitable. The question is whether it happens in 50 years or 500.

I think we still haven’t realized that all of us have a pretty good life. We’re living much longer, are much healthier, and have a lot more options. People have started thinking about things like the meaning of life, and what their purpose is. Soon a lot of people will start thinking about shared purpose, and what the human race could do.

You have this war -

1. On one side is materialism, and manipulation. The notion that you need a 3D TV because your HDTV isn’t good enough. The notion that all your core beliefs are under threat – because, obviously, something you cherish in your heart, and hold in your mind, is the most delicate thing in the world. The notion that a belief is so weak that if some ‘evil’ non-believer steps on it, it’ll be crushed forever. The notion that commodities traders need their year-end bonuses – so who cares if millions die in third world countries due to price manipulation.
2. On the other side is freedom and intelligence. Where a person says – It’s quite ridiculous that all over the world, even in America, there are kids growing up who don’t get a fair shot at the American Dream. Just so that some politician can make himself, and his Wall Street buddies, rich. Where intelligence says that if we have 6 billion people working with shared purpose, we are going to have much bigger breakthroughs, and a much better life for everyone.

The Internet and globalization and communication advances like cellphones are giving the latter side a big boost. They’re setting people free, and making them more aware and smarter. Once the communication is person to person, the Governments and manipulators lose all ability to manipulate.

You can’t make two people fight each other if their communication with each other is strong. Government brainwashing and manipulation only works when people are cut-off from each other to a very large extent.

There is little hope for the manipulators – People are just too smart now. They won’t keep making the mistakes of the past. Instead of one village fighting against another village, we will have villages sharing technology and progressing together. Instead of exploiting the world, or forgetting the world, people will work together with the rest of the world.

Filed under: thoughts Tagged: | divide and conquer, shared purpose