The Us Against Them Mentality
Lessons from watching a youth basketball game
It’s Saturday, and I’m returning home from attending my grandchildren’s recreation league basketball games. I love watching these elementary-age kids’ games. Sure they aren’t as exciting as the older grand kids’ varsity games. However, they offer a perspective that the high school games don’t.
All the players on the rec league teams come from the same town. If one of the rec teams doesn’t have five players, they borrow players from the other team. So now the kids are suddenly playing “against” their fellow team members. Interesting perspective.
Some kids from the in-house rec league squads form together to create a traveling team that plays against other teams from the local area. During one rec game, my granddaughter inadvertently knocked over a girl from the opposite team. With a look of horror, she turned to help the girl onto her feet.
After the game, as we walked out of the door, she asked if I had seen her knock the girl down. I replied that I had. She explained that the girl is on her traveling team, and it would have been really bad if she had been unable to play in their upcoming game because of her fall.
Hence, I have been pondering what adults, and more importantly, world leaders, could learn from these young ones. And then, my mind turned to the conflicts and wars that are taking place around the world.
As of April 1, 2022, the Council on Foreign Relations Global Conflict Tracker reported twenty-seven ongoing conflicts worldwide. I would venture to guess that these numbers have not fluctuated much in the past year.
What if the armies fighting in these conflicts were not of equal numbers. What if they had to borrow soldiers from the opposing “team” to fight their battles like the rec basketball teams?
The jaded part of me hopes that the leaders of these countries aren’t so debased that they wouldn’t care that their army was killing their fellow citizens. However, even if that was the case, I hope the soldiers, like my granddaughter, would spare a “perceived” enemy.
Because what if (in my imaginary scenario) sparing the life of a fellow human was an act of courage. What if, when the battle was over, these two great minds from opposing armies corroborated on a project to successfully end cancer, eliminate poverty, or reverse climate change?
Just a thought.
With Love & Energy by the Pond,
Laurel
Post Script: Maybe my imaginings aren’t so far-fetched when I recall an event from the First World War. Christmas Day in 1914, British and German soldiers on the Western Front met in no man’s land to exchange gifts and play impromptu football games. After this happened, the commanders of both sides worked to prevent any truces of this nature from happening again.
But it did happen this once on Christmas Day. It could happen again.
