Either We Belong Together or We Belong Separated

Today is one of the most significant holidays in the United States, and I find it is also a holiday that is very much about some of the “Cult Scene” thinking I have been working on (you can see some preliminary articles about this @ COMPlot ).

Benjamin Franklin famously said (something like) “We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” I guess he was also thinking of the German verb “zusammenhängen” (the basis for the noun “Zusammenhang”, roughly equivalent with the English word “relationship”).

Franklin’s “either/or” is very much the basis of much political thinking, particularly in the United States of America. Roughly, “conservative” or “right wing” political thought is based on the principle that we belong separated. At the other extreme — i.e. “left wing”, with various nomenclatures — is the idea that we belong together.

If you are thankful that you have so much, then that is a right-wing type of thankfulness. If you are thankful that everyone is so well off, then that is a left-wing mentality at play.

Happy Thanksgiving!