THE EVILS OF FACTIONALISM

My primary purpose is to promote something that I refer to as "Universality."--which I consider to be the opposite of factionalism.  In its current state, the world is divided into many factions, of various natures and descriptions, in regard to virtually every aspect of our existence.  In its current state, the world is separated by a great many boundaries and loyalties, which lead to disdain for, and hostility toward, members of "other" groups or entities.

We are divided ethnically; we are divided nationally.  We are divided in too many ways.  "Too many" because these divisions, although frequently meaningless, are too often the basis for vast amounts of resentment, conflict, hatred and violence.

Because of these usually self-created and self-perpetuated divisions, we refrain from and avoid cooperating with each other.  Instead, we are inclined to regard the members of other, often similar, factions to be rivals, and at times actual enemies.  This has handicapped mankind, and constituted an obstacle to further and faster development of civilization, for centuries.  I envision as an illustration of this, eight strong men ranged equidistantly around eight opposite points within a circle, each holding the end of a rope whose other ends are tied together at the center.  If each were to pull in his own respective direction, it is obvious that the resultant "tug-of-war" would amount to nothing more than a bizarre dance, with the entire group actually getting nowhere.  On the other hand, if these eight strongmen were to all tie their ropes to a locomotive, and pull in the same direction, they would probably succeed in pulling this massive weight along its track.  To offer a different, more practical, example based upon the aforesaid, I would wager that, had all of the time, energy, wealth, resources, and talent, not to mejntion lives, spent by both sides in the prosecution of World War II, been expended instead upon seeking a cure for cancer, this dread disease would todayhave ceased being a universal cause of so much suffering and sorrow.

Factionalism is probably the greatest single cause of difficulty, waste, and hostility in today's world.  On the one hand, it is daily responsible for vast amounts of needless activity--much of it simply duplication caused by the existence of numerous agencies and instrumentalities, in numerous places, whose job it is to do the same thing.  On the other hand, and more significantly, it has created, and continues to cause, all too many situations that have led to hatred, violence, bloodshed, and even war.

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Factionalism has been defined as an excess of attachment to an identity to which we perceive ourselves to belong, or to which we profess membership.  While there seems, on casual consideration, to be nothing particularly wrong with such attachments, further thought and recollection brings us to realize that such feelings too often evolve--or better, degenerate--into identities and bonds that exclude others.  From feelings of identity and camaraderie develop feelings that these "others" are different from us, perhaps inferior to us.  From here it is but a simple further progression  of our personal and/or group beliefs to be convinced that we must avoid them...correct them...chastise them...oppose them...stop them...punish them...destroy them--before they destroy us!  Apply this to two factions on opposite sides of a boundary line, and you can correctly anticipate tragedy.

Much of man's factionalism springs from the concept of self-interest on the part of the members of the groups within, or the residents of, certain places, who comprise such factions.  There being nothing wrong with self-interest per se, there will therefore be many who will disagree with what I say; stating that there is nothing wrong with the distinctions that exist among, and support the interests of, the various peoples and places in our world.  And, as thus stated, I would have to agree.  There is nothing wrong with concern for one's personal, family, local, and regional interests.  However, the evils that I speak of begin to arise when the factional identity springs from something that is not related to the welfare and well-being of oneself or one's family, one's locale or one's region--but rather, draws its rationale from a line conceived years before by one or more monarchs with the aid of a surveyor; or perhaps by the attendees at a conference following a war; or from biological or cultural differences that thousands of years of people's prior isolation from one another have innocently created.

Ethnicity is not necessarily synonymous with nationality.  Thus, in our present-day world, an ethnic group may reside in a number of nation-states.  On the other hand, different ethnic groups frequently find themselves residing together within the same nation-state; that is, within the confines of a set of historically accidental boundary lines.  In the latter case, sensing "confinement" together within this politically-created container, and having only the resources that exist within this place available to all of them, said groups frequently fault each other, blame each other, and sometimes even turn upon each other, in their efforts to relieve their frustrations--that are in fact usually not blamable on the "other" group(s) to begin with.

I believe that when certain people happen for the moment to possess, or to reside within a place that contains, something that is required by many more than themselves, they should be willing to--legitimately, and for fair and adequate recompense--share what they have; and in turn receive similar benefits from any and all other persons or places that are similarly endowed with more than they require.

But it is obvious that this is not the rule among most of mankind today.  We have not yet progressed along the road toward worldwide logic and order that properly reflects the heights to which human intelligence and ingenuity have ascended.  Instead, we seem to choose to inattentively retain many of the barbaric vestiges that should long ago have been shed; including an apparently unconscious continuation of tribal attitudes and behaviors that many of us still exhibit--"many of us" including some of the most learned and accomplished among us.  Thus, factionalism, in all its varied forms, and with all its various justifications, continues to flourish, and continues to contribute disturbance and distress to our world.