Us vs. Them

The cliche high school clique system exists to establish a sense of belonging to satisfy our innate human need for approval. We act a certain way in searching for our own identity while simultaneously seeking the acceptance of others, conforming to social rules established by a higher authority that are propagated by ourselves. Ultimately, we decide the clothes that are in fashion, the slang that is in fashion, the ideas that are in fashion. We decide what is popular by following trends in clothes, slang, and fashion, because without mass support, those ideas would crumble. High school cliques form when there are differences in those ideas. We feel most comfortable in an environment where people think similarly to ourselves, so we gravitate towards the people that do, and avoid those who dont. Its when cliques feel that their ideas are superior to others that segregation, or even hostility, between these self-formed social groups occurs.

Where, though, do differences in those social ideologies come from? Who do they come from?

These abstract questions exceed application to just the cliche high school clique systems. They pertain to our global community, that has separated itself into self-formed social groups that are becoming segregated, and even hostile, towards one another. In trying to find a place to belong, we have become all the more alone.

Todays specific problem with social segregation is that while people still naturally group themselves into a separate community, the voices of those communities are actually actively trying to instill hostility and establish superiority between different ideological groups. All around the world we are seeing the rise of ideologies that seek to divide. We are seeing the propagation of narratives that use us vs them to incite support for the profit of a few, and for the detriment of many. There are the muslims vs the jews, the Arabs vs the Persians, and even the American democrats vs the American republicans. There are white supremacist Nazi movements in a post World War 2 era. There are daily recruitments to ISIS in a post 9/11 era. People today are realizing the power that differences in identity have. They are using that idea to manipulate their way into positions of authority by establishing a common enemy to unite against for those within their community: people who are different than themselves. When maliciously labeling someone as different, you are dehumanizing them. The antagonism you feel towards them is suddenly justified, because they become unworthy of our time and compassion.

So in conforming to a group that exists based upon hatred for those who are different, is our innate human need for approval satisfied? We feel accepted in that situation because as us, we have been been made superior to them. We feel accepted because we belong to a specific grouping of people, whether that be a religious group, a nationalist group, or a political party. We feel accepted because within a grouping of people, we are the same.

But what if we could appeal to this human need to belong to combat the hostility between social groups? This hostility, whether it is found in a high school or in the global community, can be countered. The us vs them narrative is only legitimate if us and them are separable.

So lets become the higher authority that decides the social rules we propagate. Its natural to instinctively gravitate towards the people who share your ideas, but it should not be natural to hate those who have different ones. It should not be natural to think that other ideas are inferior just because they are different than your own. In high school and beyond, we follow trends based on clothes, slang, and fashion. Lets start the trend of realizing that although we are different in our religions, nationalities, and political affiliations, the single thing that all of us have in common is that we are all human.