Professional Documents
Culture Documents
way to protect that faith from the inevitable criticism that will be flung its
way. The trick is to adopt a belief that creates a self-reinforcing us-versusthem dichotomy—that is,
create a perception of “us” versus “them” in such a
“them.”
This sounds difficult, but is actually quite easy. Here are some examples:
If you don’t support the war, then you support the terrorists.
God created science to test our faith in God. Therefore, anything that
Anyone who thinks Kobe Bryant was better than Michael Jordan doesn’t
is invalid.
The point of these false us-versus-them dichotomies is to cut off at the
their beliefs. These false us-versus-them dichotomies have the added benefit
Common enemies are hugely important. I know we all like to think we’d
prefer to live in a world of perfect peace and harmony, but honestly, such a
world wouldn’t last for more than a few minutes. Common enemies create
unity within our religion. Some sort of scapegoat, whether justified or not, is
necessary to blame for our pain and maintain our hope.35 Us-versus-them
After all, you need to be able to paint a really simple picture for your
followers. There are those who get “it” and those who do not get “it.” Those
who get it are going to save the world. Those who do not get it are going to