5. The Them vs. Us Syndrome

DURING THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL campaign, one candidate decried, “Two Americas: One privileged, the other burdened. One America that does the work, another that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks.”³

Demagogic statements like these simply are pleas to the masses: “Vote for me, and I’ll get you your fair share of wealth, by taking it from those who have more than you. Vote for me, and I’ll rob Peter (that’s them) to pay Paul (that’s us).” Pitting the rich against the poor is only one of the many foot-stomping campaign themes based on the mind-set of “them versus us.” Self-appointed leaders pit white people against black people, men against women, factory owners against workers, foreigners against Americans, and new immigrants against descendants of older ones. Blaming one group for the ills of another is a sure way to provoke and sustain ill will between the groups.

Following these Pied Pipers of divisive protest and their pipe dreams is a good way to ensure that you never get what they promise or what you desire. Blaming others for what we don’t have directs our energy and ingenuity away from the only reliably effective source of achievement in the world—self-reliance. Once we realize that no one owes us a life free of misery, we actually begin to search for real remedies instead of wasting time and energy accusing others of causing our woes and expecting restitution.

Every U.S. election campaign is a tug-of-war between Robin Hoods, each accusing the other of either giving too little and taking too much or taking too little and giving too much. People get angry about their every grievance because they are constantly bombarded with the notion that they are the victims of someone’s plot to take an unfair advantage of them.

With such stories constantly in the news, it’s easy to develop a conspiracy complex or even paranoia about anything we don’t like by blaming it on someone else “getting away with murder.” If gasoline prices are too high, blame the oil companies. If drug prices are too high, blame the drug companies. Tomorrow it will be a different scapegoat, someone new who owes us a free this or a cheaper that. Just stay tuned and our Congressman or news reporter will give us the latest culprit in vogue. The bumper sticker “Corporate Greed vs. Human Need” exemplifies this kind of paranoia.

In a democratic society in which everyone has a say about everyone else’s lifestyle, it’s no wonder we spend so much time debating one man’s pet peeve and another’s grand solution. In a self-reliant society, pet peeves may keep us awake at night, but in a democratic society, we can spend a lifetime of energy creating one pet peeve after another and offering “our” solution, because we now have a voice. Of course, who doesn’t want to be heard, particularly when we know that someone with political power over others will listen? So the “them vs. us” notion permeates the news and becomes the publicized rationale for new legislation, and yes, may even alter our own thinking, if we ignore common sense.

Consider one of the most horrific “them vs. us” political campaigns in recent history: the Jewish “them” versus the Aryan “us” campaign waged in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Many were led to believe that Jews were a detriment to society and that a fair and just solution (named Endlösung der Judenfrage [The Final Solution of the Jewish Question]) was to isolate and eradicate them.

³According to the Internal Revenue Service, more than 50 percent of the tax revenue in 2002 came from the top 5 percent of the taxpayers (up from 43.6 percent in 1990), 80 percent came from the top 25 percent, and virtually all (96 percent) of the tax revenue came from the top 50 percent. The IRS data refute the candidate’s implication that the rich pay little tax.