Neighbours to the South - A Mirror of What is to be?

It is easy and oh so tempting to look at the chaotic political gamesmanship occurring in the country to the south of Canada and say - " we could never act like that" or " our politicians could never be that bad". Most of us desperately need to believe that to be true. I would even suspect that a number of citizens of the US believe that their politicians cannot be willfully lying or manipulating the circumstances for their own political benefit. And yet the evidence on both sides of the border is quite clear. Some politicians/political parties will take positions that exist only to create or perpetuate conflict and disagreement. As clearly demonstrated by Trump and his allies, it doesn't seem to matter how absurd or fraudulent your position is - someone, perhaps a lot of people will believe you.

In Canada, the inflammatory messages might be more subtle and there would appear to be less interest in reacting to them. But there is a constant effort to drive wedges between groups of people or in Canada's case between regions. Take for example the leader of the Bloc who said that it does not matter who is in the new Canadian cabinet because "no one can make Canada a coherent country" (CBC). He then went on to say " the apparent division in Canada is a natural state for an artificial country [like] Canada" (CBC). The Bloc, given their stated goal to leave the confederation, will always use language that suggests that the confederation is not working and even that it should not exist. Some people in Quebec will agree with him, most just assume that it is a bit of reflexive, mindless political jostling. Unfortunately, some outside of Quebec will see his comments as one more bit of proof that Quebecers don't want to stay/belong in Canada and say something equally as stupid, thereby proving that the rest of Canada does not like Quebecers. Similarly, comments suggesting that some of the provinces (i.e. Alberta, Saskatchewan) would be better off going it alone are made and discussed every few years.

The question in my mind that begs to be asked is why do we not only allow politicians and others to make such statements but why do so many people get on a particular bandwagon. What is it about human nature (as someone who has studied/taught sociology I really dislike suggesting that there are some innate things about human behaviour) that encourages us to look for the differences between us. Why do are we always comparing ourselves to everyone else, one hand assuming that we are superior, while on the other hand assuming that we are being treat unfairly. It is almost as if we believe that we have the right to be treated as the best but that everyone is against us.

If we could only stop believing that everyone else is out to get us, to take advantage of our good nature life would be so much easier. If we could only accept that other people, even those we do not agree with - are good people and that they would never intentionally hurt us. After all - we are good people and we would never hurt anyone - right?