Live Together, Die Alone

"Jedem Das Seine" - roughly translated from German, it means "to each their own."  This is the message vistors read when they walk through the iron gate into what's left of Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

The message is pretty clear - don't worry about your neighbour, you'll be lucky to get through with your own neck intact.  That was the message the Nazis wanted their inmates to take to heart - you're in this alone.  Concentration Camps were carefully designed to build on divisions; their evil genius was that the Nazis themselves had to do little work in keeping Concentration Camp inmates in line.  They took care of all that internally.

What toppled the Nazis?  Three things; internal division, external cooperation and brave men and women who fought against the sytem that tried to cleave them apart and fought together for something bigger than themselves - the idea that every man for himself isn't going to work, that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, that we can live together.

As all things are cyclical, it appears this is a battle we're all going to have to fight again.

Don't Let It Happen Again

This picture jumped out at me from this morning's Toronto Star, sending a shiver up my spine.  Perhaps not the context, but the image itself struck an uncomfortable cord.  Then I dug around and came across this.

As economic tensions rise because there are those within the system who refuse to engage in a conscious, respectful manner, the list of groups and individuals feeling disenfranchised grows longer.  Tolerance is on the decline, with antagonism and isolationism increasing all around the world.  The Western World is far from immune. 

We cannot turn a blind eye to the consequences of anger and intolerance again.  Why?

Because there are no bad people; only ignorance and fear keeps us from meeting our full potential, as one richly diverse global population.  Because the world is too small.  Because the consequences are so dire.  Most importantly, it's because conflict is so inefficient.

I still believe things are going to get worse before they get better; that we are once again going to have to skirt perilously close to the unfathomable before we regain our sense and remember the simple logic;

We can live together, or we can die alone.