Do you really want to be united?

The other day I was listening to some reggae music and scrolling through a news article. The song spoke about unity and peace. It promoted the idea that the world is too fragmented and needs to unite.

I thought it was funny that I was reading an article promoting the same concept. But as the song went on I started to realize that the message sounded as though it was about unity but it wasn’t. The singer wanted the other side to give up and adopt the singer’s beliefs.

For many this might not seem strange. But from a systems perspective, I found it damaging. Focusing on being united and being peaceful by forcing others to give up their beliefs to align with you is counterintuitive.

Complex systems always have many perspectives. The system impacts people in a myriad of ways. It depends on what part of the system you are experiencing. That determines your beliefs about the system more than anything else.

So, calling for unity by expecting others in the system to adopt your beliefs is the same as continuing to promote hatred for the other side. You don’t really want unity. You want to win the argument.

As I thought about the song, I realized that the same thing was playing out in the news article I was reading. They want the world to change to better meet their personal needs and desires. They said it is the right thing. They said that would be unity. They said that would be a better world.

Unfortunately, both sides tend to do the same thing. Take any complex system with opposing views and you will find some form of this. It is almost like a passive aggressive way to promote your cause.

When both sides feel as though they are the only “right” side, unity becomes a ploy. It isn’t about truly trying to meet in the middle. It isn’t about understanding the other side. It is about the belief that our side is the only right side and, therefore, everyone needs to join our side.

Here is a test if you are promoting this idea of unity. Would you be willing to give up some of your beliefs and join the other side, for the sake of unity? Probably not.

Systems can exist but have unity and conflict at the same time. From the higher systems view, most systems reach equilibrium by having opposing sides. It becomes a balancing feedback loop. One side gets too much power and the other side pushes back. The pendulum swings too far in the other direction and there are forces to pull it back.

Yet in that system, you will likely have people advocating on either side for unity. They want the other side to go away. They want to “win” the system. They don’t see that the system is much larger than they are, and that unity may well mean conflict to keep things from becoming too extreme.

It is also found in those saying they want world peace. They don’t. To have world peace, we would all have to give up the idea of using force to get what we want.

If one person decides to use force, they would dominate the world and overtake everyone. Unless someone rises up and fights against them. But in our peaceful world, we wouldn’t have the ability to do that. We gave up our power for the idea of peace.

Sure, peace sounds like a great goal. But systematically it doesn’t actually make much sense. That is why there has been conflict since the existence of humans. And there are plenty of examples of conflict in the animal world as well.

If the idea of unity and peace are misunderstood. If they don’t make sense in a complex system. Then what do we do? Accept the situation, accept the system and move forward.

If you believe it is a flawed system, work to adjust the system. Don’t expect everyone to cater to you and your beliefs. Don’t argue that others need to give up their beliefs and unite with you.

But realize there is often more perfection in an imperfect system. The perfection isn’t at the bottom levels where we experience it. It is in the higher levels that balance everything out and keep moving things forward.