With the election just recently behind us, tensions are still very high. There are people who support Trump as president and call for unity just as there are people who don't support Trump and speak out against him. Trough all of this, what really lies at the center is division, especially division by generality.
This division arises out of the us vs. them mentality and is visible throughout history and in many places today. It happens in politics very easily with the two party system. It has happened and still happens with the Muslims, mostly due to the negative misconceptions that arise from Islamic extremism. It has happened in other places as well. I like to point to Exodus where the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians. From the very first chapter of Exodus this us vs. them mentality arises. There is no shortage of other examples of this throughout history.
However, this division is one that we should be more weary of than any others. This is because this mentality is one of the quickest ways to dehumanize someone.
Let's take the example of Exodus for a few moments. The early chapters set up the rest of the book and really lead to Moses and these chapters are what I am interested in. Essentially what happens is that the Israelites are becoming more powerful than their Egyptian overlords. As a result, the Pharaoh at the time evoked this us vs. them mentality to persecute them. He went on to declare that every male born to the Israelites was to be killed. He commanded two Israelite midwives to do this, but they refused. However, the Pharaoh did not pass a judgment on them. The big question at is moment is why?
I think the answer is that he saw them as humans and not as the "them." When these two midwives refused, they were in the Pharaoh's court. They were standing in the same room as him and as a result, he was forced to see them as individuals and not as just a group of people somewhere beyond his view.
The idea that I am getting at is generality vs. specificity. In other words, you can generalize some group using the us vs. them mentality, or you can view this group as individual people. The difference is quite simple. When thinking of a group of people generally it is easier to mash stereotypes and misconceptions together. As a result, this group of people seems less human. But when you look at just one person you can start to see similarities between yourself and them; you see them as a human.
For example, imagine a prison. You probably think about rows of cell filled with people that have too many tattoos or piercings and is just angry at the world. But if you look at just one inmate you might see someone who has a family. My point is that when viewed individually, these groups of people that we can often generalize look more human.
This is the mentality we all need after this election. We need to stop the us vs. them mentality and instead look at each person as a human. One analogy I like is this: we are all in this boat together, you cannot sit on your side and laugh at the people on the other side because their end is sinking.
