What Do You Mean by Divisiveness?

Well, "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught"

Before I answer the above question, let me just say that I appreciate readers comments or requests for clarification. Like so many questions, the answers come quickly when one stays on the surface, but beneath that surface is where the gold lies.

Divisiveness, to me, is anything that generates or reinforces the sense that one group or entity is superior to another. It is a tool that’s used to perpetuate the “Us Against Them” paradigm.

Let’s dissect a common example -

Suggesting that people who disagree with us, do so because they’re stupid.

Obviously some people are more intelligent, or better informed as to actual facts than others. There’s book sense, common sense, people with high I.Q’s, photographic memories, mechanical or mathematical aptitudes, or remarkable abilities to memorize. Some outwardly intelligent people may flawlessly regurgitate talking points they’ve heard and yet have no insight to actually scrutinize the validity of that information. No one is immune to being deceived or to making errors of judgement. And then there’s also Indoctrination - a key part of decision making .

Lastly, having a different opinion doesn’t make a person stupid or inferior. It’s merely evidence of a high-functioning brain that hasn’t been dumbed down by group think.

As I considered various examples of what might make one group feel superior to another, I thought of things like - wealth, privilege, race, religion, political party affiliation, education, and levels of ability or disability. Each of these are potential sources of division due to a subjective, albeit contrived sense of supremacy.

Everyday examples of divisiveness -

“Name Calling” is probably the earliest-learned form of divisiveness. Though we may first encounter it in grammar school, name calling is typically abandoned as people mature. Obviously some individuals never outgrow their childhood behaviors.

Knowingly perpetuating lies about people, groups, institutions and even elections. This leaves wide paths of destruction involving everything from individuals to our democracy.

NOT fact-checking sensational headlines, or significantly damaging articles, before passing them on . Typically this step is avoided either due to laziness or the corrupt intent of stirring up more animosity against a perceived enemy - whether it’s justified or not. This may advance an agenda, but it's at the expense of the health of our country and society .

Making fun of or belittling people especially because of a disability or other vulnerabilities.

Narcissism is the ultimate form of divisiveness. As a narcissist, I would see my ever-increasing desire for more adoration, love, money, and power, as trumping the needs of everyone else. Even my “friends” would become “the other” if they got in the way of my accumulation of more. True altruism might be considered the antithesis of divisiveness as the line between Us and Them becomes hard to delineate.

Labeling may well be the most damaging form of divisiveness. People are a really diverse and fascinating lot, but they don’t inherently want to harm or kill each other.

"You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" - South Pacific by Rogers and Hammerstein

So labels become a critical part of the indoctrination and the dehumanization of those we disagree with. Waging wars depends on the ability of those in power to convince combatants that their adversaries are unfathomably evil and against everything the good warriors stand for. Annihilating them is the only option if they are to preserve the freedoms and values that they cherish.

That said, there doesn’t need to be an actual connection between a perceived adversary and the type of label applied to them, as long as the intended, niave audience buys into the narrative that there is a connection. Randomly labeling a conservative as an authoritarian for instance is analogous to randomly calling a progressive a communist. Statistically speaking, you’re probably wrong in both cases but each label gets lots of people fired up - which is the goal of those driving the “Us against Them” death spiral.