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A fellow LJer recently posted about a dialogue concerning a group in which she is a member. I didn't understand all the nuances to this conflict, but it appeared to be a clash between which groups a person aligns themself with, and which ones a person wants to remain seperate from. A person in one of the groups set off the conflict by making disparaging remarks about other members.
The first thing that came to mind was segments of the movie Life of Brian. The movie concerns a farce in which a character, Brian, is mistaken as a savior, in Biblical Judea. At several points in the movie there are conflicts between the Judean People's Front, The People's Front of Judea, and other similar sounding groups. They hate each other almost (if not more) than the Romans, the main antagonist.
I see this happening all the time in real life. The Irish and their strife concerning Catholics versus Lutherans is an example. To outsiders the Irish seem the same, the religious differences minor. I hope they can learn to live together peacefully someday.
What do all of these examples have in common? My feeling is that the individuals who become part of these exclusionary groups are engaging in dichotomous thinking. They all have difficulty seeing the world in the shades of grey (and the rest of the rainbow) the rest of us can see. They tend to define themselves by what they are NOT, as opposed to what they are. They seem to take delight in tearing down others to build themselves up. I would further assert the individuals responsible for this segregation lack empathy for anyone who is not like them. They don't see us for who we are, we're just wishwashy pescitarian bisexual heathens on a course straight to hell. Look me up when you get there. ;)
I prefer inclusive groups, but they have a different set of problems. Maybe I'll analyze the problems I've encountered with those groups some other day.
The first thing that came to mind was segments of the movie Life of Brian. The movie concerns a farce in which a character, Brian, is mistaken as a savior, in Biblical Judea. At several points in the movie there are conflicts between the Judean People's Front, The People's Front of Judea, and other similar sounding groups. They hate each other almost (if not more) than the Romans, the main antagonist.
I see this happening all the time in real life. The Irish and their strife concerning Catholics versus Lutherans is an example. To outsiders the Irish seem the same, the religious differences minor. I hope they can learn to live together peacefully someday.
What do all of these examples have in common? My feeling is that the individuals who become part of these exclusionary groups are engaging in dichotomous thinking. They all have difficulty seeing the world in the shades of grey (and the rest of the rainbow) the rest of us can see. They tend to define themselves by what they are NOT, as opposed to what they are. They seem to take delight in tearing down others to build themselves up. I would further assert the individuals responsible for this segregation lack empathy for anyone who is not like them. They don't see us for who we are, we're just wishwashy pescitarian bisexual heathens on a course straight to hell. Look me up when you get there. ;)
I prefer inclusive groups, but they have a different set of problems. Maybe I'll analyze the problems I've encountered with those groups some other day.
