E PLURIBUS UNUM / OUT OF MANY, ONE.- This was our Nation's motto and still is on our money.
Let's do a thought experiment. Ah c'mon, it'll be fun. Try to think of effective ways to divide people. Try to come up with at least 5 ways.
Religions, corporations, countries all over the world have used classical Renaissance strategies of manipulation, control, subjugation and the acquisition of territories i.e.: A blueprint for mainstream colonialism created by Nicolo Machiavelli. First introduced in his book,"The Prince."Circa 1532 A.D.
One strategy that sadly works all the time is, "Divide and conquer". Choose any group of people for example. Now, separate the men from the women. Separate them by race. Already, you've managed to break the group up into 4 sub-groups, black men, black women, white men, white women. Can we break these sub-groups down further? Let's endeavor to try! Let's break them up by income. High income earners and low income earners. Now the group is broken in to 6 sub-groups!
The one paradigm that is the glue to any civilized society is solidarity. (Unity.) That is the enemy to those who are in power. So, they cater to the high earners and give them a sense of importance, which they nurture. Now, the high income earners feel not only emboldened but superior to the rest. We can divide this hypothetical group further by creating and perpetuating racial, cultural, religious, legislative, judicial and economic bias but I think you get the point. This is how you manipulate and control the whole of a group, a civilized society or even a nation. By dividing them in to utter submission.
Admittedly, this is a rudimentary break down but it is also functionally and foundationally, true. There are more clandestine and insidious strategies but this one is the basic foundation for most machiavellian paradigms. Divide and conquer.
Now remember the 5 ways to divide people that I asked you to think about? Would you believe that those 5 things have not only been done to you in some way but they are also what you have done to others in some way? Hard questions merit equally hard answers. They merit pause, reflection, introspection and honesty.
America was born in the fires of rebellion. If only some Americans are benefitting from the status quo, eventually we all lose. This is how empires and countries have fallen. A resounding lack of solidarity fortified by dividing a people so much so, that citizens see each other as strangers, unwanted competition and the enemy. We've been conditioned to think this way for generations and that has been preventing us from accepting our history, healing and creating bridges of empathy and solidarity and finally forgiving the past to create a unified future. We are, all of us, Americans here. Let us no longer be so easily divided nor see our differences as weakness but strengths. Americans in 2025 are multi-cultural.
And what do Americans do better than anybody else? We rebel.
