Alloys make allies?
Our greatest virtue is our ability to work together for a single purpose, there is a strength in numbers and having allies who cover our weaknesses. We see this when we combine a metal with another metal or element we can produce a compound that is stronger whilst retaining the original characteristics of the metals, if you take iron and carbon, you make steel which is the essential back bone of our modern world and made possible everything from skyscraper to ocean liners. This combining effect produces something greater than the total of it's parts, because we multiply their virtue and usefulness, something that is impossible when things are in isolation when they are weaker, loosely bonded and will always have a competitive disadvantage, we can not be great at everything. The same is true for society, we take the thinkers, doers, carers, healers, teachers and combine them into a stronger unit capable of supporting each other, that cover each other's weaknesses and support those who can do the greatest good. That has been the strength of countries for centuries, that the many can act together for the greater good in a shared mission to protect their borders and give the masses peace in which to live their lives.
However there is a movement that wishes to split us into individuals or ever smaller groups rather than extend our area of concern to the whole of humanity and whenever you increase the number of rival groups, there is an exponential growth in conflict between those group. We see the dynamic in street gangs, when a city has hundred different gangs there is constant warfare but when a single organised gang dominates that violence reduces to a minimum, indeed that is the first principle of policing, the state becomes the largest, most powerful gang (and we know that having the police does not reduce violence to zero not least from police violence). This can change if a gang is very well funded, such as the drug cartels, they bring such huge resources that they can overwhelm the police gang and even buy it, so that it operates for their advantages rather than the community.
These gangs occur naturally as it in our nature to join together, as there is a benefit for everyone involved, not just protection but a sense of purpose. When men went to the moon, there might have been only three astronauts, but there was ten of thousands of people who devoted most of their working lives to the project, and everyone of them joined together into a team dedicated to a single mission and they all derived meaning and purpose from what they were doing. Which is just as much a need as water, food and shelter, you can sacrifice more for a mission than you can for yourself, we can endure anything when there is a reason for doing so, we only give up hope when we are alone and without purpose.
When we drive societies apart we set people against each other, we stop listening and communicating to find the common ground between us rather than focus on what makes us different, it always a choice as we have so many different experiences of life, it is easy to point out what makes us unique, we can ignore the fundamental similarities. In my travels for all the cosmetic variations in the world, I can only see people who are trying to make their lives and that of their families a little bit better, they are not trying to change the world (however much they think it is a good idea) rather they are paying attention to the small details, do we buy a television or a larger freezer, should I exercise more often, work Saturday and miss my kid's football game. After all these are the details that matter, that make a real difference to someone’s life, not politics, not who did what a hundred years ago, not that I do not care about truth, but the truth does not put food on the table, you have to work before you can care, it is a luxury and I treasure it for that.
That is what is so dangerous about people who just want to tear the system down because they can only see it's past faults and think that they are baked into it's foundations, therefore it must be destroyed and replaced. If they had some idea of what they were going to replace it with, I would be a lot more interested but the idea that if you get rid of something bad you automatically allow a good thing to flourish, is at best naive or guilt of historical blindness, as there is absolutely no evidence from the past, that civilisation collapse has ever been followed by an ideal society, rather it marks the descent into chaos and street gang violence. Better society has only ever come about from gradual change and confidence in our ability to live peaceful lives with increasing personal freedom.
Which is not what is happening now, people are feeling repressed, their freedom seem to be disappearing, their choices is being restricted and the world is becoming more protectionist, our liberty is being restricted (I use to able to live in 28 different countries, now I am restricted to Open prison Britain) and the laws seem to picking on one group of people at a time but eventually it will effect everyone. There is anger out there, the young are routinely taken advantage by the voting elderly, majorities are ignored by extremists, the loudest and stupidest of both ends of any argument are the only ones heard in the overcrowded social media space. That leaves the moderate middle nowhere to go except towards tribalism or they risk being crushed in the middle with no friends to help, when we cease to be a whole, we can only retreat into the safety of our group whatever that might be. When everyone acts like an extremist, no one gets to be anything else, there are no good people left, just victims of the extremes. This is not good waiting to replace the corrupt elites, it is the worst kind of chaos, this is purge levels of anarchy with every street corner being fought over.
We can not have a world where men are in conflict with women, poor with rich, white with black, gay with straight, right with left, that is just a world of tribes working against each other and where we all lose. It is when we stop listening, looking for those areas of commonality, the areas where we agree and want to protect, the freedom of expression should be universal and yet we have cancel culture seeking to become the judges of what and how people speak and what they say, just like the US with it's red scare in the 1950's, it becomes a witch hunt that burns people at the stake for thought crimes. No one thinks that witch hunts are a good thing and we might ask how people could have stood by and done nothing, and yet we are witnessing it today and people just want to get on and make their lives better.
That is perhaps my greatest hope, that no matter what people can not help but try and make their lives better, even when the marco forces in the world are trying to rip them apart and force them to act against their wishes. The drive to improve is so strong it can not be stopped by any authority, even in the USSR the underground illegal market thrived, not out of kindness but because people wanted their lives to be better. When people stop caring about the news or politics that is them rejecting ideas that have no relevance to them, that do not help them to help their families and indeed it might be them walking away from the depression of caring in a world that just wants to shout at each other, a rejection of the competitive victimhood that leaves the winner powerless and lacking any control over their lives.
Lucky, you do not need a whole country of allies, you just need a few friends and a good family that loves and listen to you, they can be enough motivation, support and care that gives you the strength to go into the world and get the resources that you need to help them and yourself. They can be the core of your principles, the moral heart that makes you want to treat people with kindness and compassion, that you want to understand, empathise with, you start with those who you care about, they can be the focus and the point that you return to, they can give you meaning and the strength to succeed in a dark world. They are the light that can bring you home, their weaknesses can become your strength, and they are the only allies that you truly need.
