The Lie that Pits “Us Against Them”

There is a lie that runs throughout the cultures and countries of Earth that pits “us against them.” This is not a recent phenomenon. It stretches back through history. It is the cause of racial conflicts, religious purges, ethnic cleansing, civil wars, and violence both on a large and on a personal scale. It is a lie that breathes life into movements which feed on hatred. It has been responsible for the fall of empires. And behind it there is always an ulterior motive.

Friendship poem
(Photo by: Anton_Ivanov / Shutterstock.com)

The lie is easy to spot, if you’re looking for it, simply because the rest of us—left to our own devices—are mostly content to get along peacefully with each other. We want to do well. We want to leave the world a better place than we found it. We want our children to be happy.

We have things in common.

As a Scientologist of more than 40 years, I’ve learned that the facts are more important than the “story.” And that they are worth the effort of discovery. I’ve learned that communication and understanding form the road to healing.

We need to pay attention. All of us. As hard as the maligners promote hatred, that’s how hard the rest of us must promote friendship.

Friendship

Your enemy is not:

Christian

Muslim

Jewish

Hindu

Buddhist

Shinto

Sikh

Scientologist

He is not:

Palestinian

Israeli

American

Russian

Chinese

Japanese

Iranian

Indian

Pakistani

There are differences between men.

That makes them interesting.

That gives them something to talk about.

Your enemy is the specific man

who would use these differences

to breed distrust, and then

carefully

fan that distrust into hatred.

That man plants seeds that

he has carefully gathered from his own

hatred.

He is a man who knows

no peace except death.

For him, there is no sunny laughter of children, only

the sound of young recruits to his cause.

And his cause is death.

He dances like the matador, inflaming

the bull with deception

and pain, to the point

that it cannot

think.

It charges anything that moves.

He leads it to death.

Nothing more.

He knows that

there is no gain

at the end of his road.

There are differences between men.

That is what makes them interesting.

They share similar dreams.

This man dreams of

setting them at

each others’ throats. He

is enemy to them all.

Children play in green fields

in the warm afternoon.

He watches from the tree line, hidden

among the weeds. Plotting

ways to turn them into creatures

of hate.

Every country

every religion

every race

has these men.

The war is: All

of us, against the few

of them.

All of us.

AUTHOR
Mike Graves
Internationally acclaimed poet Michael Graves has published three books of poetry and has been a Scientologist for more than 40 years. If he's not writing or consulting for business owners (his day job for more than 30 years) you can probably find him out back, working on his deck.