Us OR Them – Young Daffwold's Almanack

There Is No “Us Or Them” There is only “We”
And We are all in this together

So what do I mean by us and them?

Whole lot of folks out there believe that there are two kinds of people in the world – – – us and them.

Us is good, them is bad or us is Democrats, and them is Republicans. Or us is Christians, them is heathens, us is Redskin fans, them is cowboy fans.

Just two kinds of people – – – us and them

Now some folks go a little further. They say it's us OR them.

For example it's us Americans or them Russians – – – it is the truth or fake news – – – it is God or science – – –

Because us are good and them are evil.

And the difference between the us AND them folks and those who believe it's us OR them, is that the us OR them advocates think that us have to overpower them because them is determined to destroy us and our way of life. The us OR them people believe that there is a struggle going on and it will end in the destruction of one side or the other, whereas the us AND them people just believe that the world is divided into two kinds of humans the good ones and the bad ones.

Well AND them is just a mighty simplistic and unrealistic way of looking at the world. But us OR them is a damned dangerous lie!

There is no us or them.
They are all us and we are all them.
There is only we. And we are all in this together.

Or as the Beatles said: I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together

Now you will hear people say that belief in us or them is a fundamental characteristic of human nature. Social scientists will tell you that we are tribal. What do they mean by that?

Well they figure that humans started out as small family units. All the children and spouse of one mother or all of the children and spouse of one father.

And within the tribe they shared and cooperated in order to survive and to have an environment in which they could raise children.

And as time went on tribes interacted with other tribes. In a peaceful fashion. We are naturally social beings. And interaction between tribes is similar to interaction within a family. One tribe may have something that is useful to another and vice versa so they trade.

Now the us or them advocates will tell you that when one tribe encountered the other they usually fought with each other. But that's really unlikely. As I say we are social animals. Our natural tendency is to interact in a friendly manner.

And all current evidence suggests that resources were not scarce so early humans would have to fight each other to survive.

Besides, if family tribes are nothing but antagonistic to each other, who are they going to marry?
Not their brothers and sisters.
We are sure that that taboo is deeply rooted. And it's there for very good reasons. They have got to find a spouse in another tribe.

So tribes are interacting. They are trading goods and services between each other. They recognize family identity, so there is some element of us and them, but certainly not us OR them.

But today there's a whole lot of people who do believe it's "us or them" Where did it go wrong?

Will, there are three perversions of human society.
They are Warfare, Slavery and Aristocracy.

Warfare probably came first. One tribe figured out that if they threatened harm or death they could steal the possessions of several other tribes and therefore have a more luxurious lifestyle.

Slavery follows easily upon warfare. Instead of stealing the possessions of other tribes you steal their personhood. You make them your possessions.

And aristocracy is just a way of applying warfare and slavery within a given extended tribe.

As tribes grew larger and turned into city states, subgroups within the city state applied the principles of warfare and slavery to other subgroups and that's what aristocracy is.

Warfare slavery and aristocracy are perversions against the social nature of humanity. They are not natural. Humans will resist them.

The only way you can get humans to accept them is to create a mythology which justifies them.
Us or them is that mythology.

And it's a lie. There is no us or them.

The real enemies are the institutions of warfare slavery and aristocracy which pervert our social nature.

There is no us or them. They are all us and we are all them. There is only we. And we are all in this together.

Now this video touches on but does not discuss a couple of interesting questions:
What about the vast proliferation of human tribes today? And
If “Us Or Them” is a lie, why do so many people believe in it?