One of the more interesting stories in this regard that I have seen (that highlights the inanity of it) was in an Episode of Babylon 5 (a 90's science fiction TV show, one of the better ones).
Every so many years, one of the alien races (the Drazi) has this thing that happens--and it was causing a LOT of problems (mostly violence) on the Babylon 5 station. When the station personnel investigated they found that it was a fight between two political factions: purple and green (harkening back to the byzantine chariot race team riots).
How were the factions chosen? It wasn't a question of ideology or policy. They lined up and grabbed a scarf out of a bin of mixed scarves--if you pulled green you were green, purple you were purple. Two scarves were special.. whoever pulled the special scarves were the leaders of the faction.
It was both hilarious and yet a telling indictment of how we differentiate ourselves often on the least pretext.
Any difference trumps cohesion.
If there isn't difference we will create it.
I believe this is an unfortunate truth. I have seen it happen in very small groups and it is simply shocking.
One of the more interesting stories in this regard that I have seen (that highlights the inanity of it) was in an Episode of Babylon 5 (a 90's science fiction TV show, one of the better ones).
Every so many years, one of the alien races (the Drazi) has this thing that happens--and it was causing a LOT of problems (mostly violence) on the Babylon 5 station. When the station personnel investigated they found that it was a fight between two political factions: purple and green (harkening back to the byzantine chariot race team riots).
How were the factions chosen? It wasn't a question of ideology or policy. They lined up and grabbed a scarf out of a bin of mixed scarves--if you pulled green you were green, purple you were purple. Two scarves were special.. whoever pulled the special scarves were the leaders of the faction.
It was both hilarious and yet a telling indictment of how we differentiate ourselves often on the least pretext.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=Awr9zQ2TOnBio1QCG.v7w8QF;_ylu=c2VjA3NyBHNsawN2aWQEdnRpZAMEZ3BvcwMx?p=babylon+5+purple+and+green&vid=49cf810a8d323c8702115fe66eab691a&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOVP.Sw7xacUJ1ot2L1NS0aKiegHgFo%26pid%3DApi%26h%3D360%26w%3D480%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAcBTOU7RvbU&tit=%26quot%3B%3Cb%3EGreen%3C%2Fb%3E.+%3Cb%3EPurple%3C%2Fb%3E.%26quot%3B+-+Susan+Ivanova+%3Cb%3Eand%3C%2Fb%3E+Drazi&c=0&h=360&w=480&l=131&sigr=xX6XS4idrXmm&sigt=l0lCzVYhMEsz&sigi=uIjywEyobYqq&age=1335047871&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=mcafee&type=E210US885G91648&tt=b