We need to stop being Us versus Them and become US.
We need to stop the mentality of “us versus them” and become US. This polarizing way of thinking is rampant within the political and religious world. Many people have a strong ego, have control issues, have a superiority complex, and have a false belief and perception that they are better than others. They believe that they have the truth and are closed minded to other opinions and beliefs. This causes the separation that creates the “us versus them” mentality.
The “us versus them” mentality causes people to demonize other people, places, and things who are not like them and do not share the same culture, language, or belief system. This type of unhealthy thought process will occur when the “us versus them” people will constantly generalize and stereotype people and groups. A person with a healthy thought process will see people as individuals within a larger group. Many international leaders are “us versus them” people and as a result they will start unnecessary wars either to get rid of people who are not like them or to engage in nation building so as to force people who are different to be like them.
Another major characteristic of people who have this unhealthy thought process is that they will also think and feel superior to other human beings. Along with a superiority complex, they will also most likely have a huge ego. The end result is that they become self-righteous and closed minded. They will also engage in extreme thinking or polarized thinking. There is no gray area or middle ground. It is their way or no way and they are not open to new thoughts, beliefs, or cultures.
Religions worldwide engage in this “us versus them” thinking and they will form a “holier than thou” mental complex. They will believe that they are holier than other people in the world and that they only have the truth. “Holier than thou” people also believe that they are going to Heaven and everyone else is going to Hell. They do not realize that Heaven could already be here on Earth and is not some other place.
The bottom line of this unhealthy thinking is that self-righteous, “us versus them” superior thinking people will live in a world of fantasy, illusion, confusion, and delusion. They are also usually unhappy people who have not found their natural happiness.
I have written on the same problem. This schism between people who are generally 99.9% of the same DNA and similar enculturation, seems rooted in our culture. Some religions would call it the "devil" in each of us. I said it a bit different though, that Us and Them should become "We."
These song lyrics and art are tales, tides and twinkling lights - tunes telling stories of warmth and sun, city and sand, paths that lead, and the coins we can keep in the Karma Bank. Spirit's been bypassed for sorrow, dreaming of a better tomorrow .
Ron