A brief glance at history reveals that those who promote ideologies that are not supported by the majority very often resort to fear and hate to achieve their ends. A more in-depth review of history will reveal that such practices rarely end well, especially for the folks.
The practice involves dividing and judging the people along some set of traits, often a confusing combination. Origins, religions, affiliations all of these serve the purpose of the Machiavellian. They spin a web of superiority on the one hand and subhuman inferiority on the other. The members of these inferior sets do not deserve the same dignity or concern for suffering as the fully human set.
So effective is the strategy that neighbors have been convinced to slaughter neighbors, even relatives and friends, in the cruelest ways imaginable. Inevitably the masterminds of these movements lose control of the beast they create and often become victim to it.
Our society is being drawn deeper and deeper into a Machiavellian pit, over skin color, over religion, over ideology. Divided, we allow the manipulators to ply their lordship over us. We think of the others as less intelligent, less sophisticated, less human than we. They are deserving of ridicule, insult and judgement so we partake and applaud those actions. All along we are being led into the pit where our own liberty and justice erodes.
A few times in history great leaders have emerged who saw the insanity of division for political means and promoted unity through forgiveness and reconciliation.
The Roman empire used the strategy of division to great effect in lording over the people they conquered. After conquering Israel Rome installed a cruel Machiavellian leader who kept the people of Israel so divided that violent revolts were brutally and quickly addressed by the relatively small minority of interlopers.
Then a teacher arose who led a movement of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. Whatever you may think of Jesus theologically, it is a historical fact that in less than 300 years, the movement begun by this teacher would reshape and reform the Roman empire. The teacher did not fight fire with fire, he fought fire with water, violence with peace.
Where are the followers of the teacher now? We need you.