When we identify ourselves with a faction, a cult, a guild, an organization, or any group for that matter, we commit ourselves to that group. As a constituent of that group, we conform to that group. Ideologies are converted. Practices are transmuted. We comply with a normative set of rules. Ultimately, we avow trenchantly to work towards the group’s loftiest aspiration, and work it as part of a personal goal.
Like a symbiotic relationship between lichens and mycorrhizae, the group as a whole promise something in return to its members. A mega-corporation, for instance, grows strong when its fellow members work hard to bring its vision to realization. The members, in return, acquire financial stability and security from the organization. Gradually, members grow dependant on that organization, and vice-versa. And to secure the constituents, which are an invaluable component of the organization, the organization or its leader drafts up normative laws and regulations which circumscribe its constituents’ behaviors.
Not surprisingly, it happens to cults and religions, too. As a religion expands and reaches out to the masses, there are bound to be chaos and disorders amidst multifarious members. The need to shackle its members grows to such a magnitude that its original visions no longer pertain. Trammeled members believe that they are committing a good cause which contributes to the religion’s visions, where unbeknownst to them, they are incarcerated in a prison mind by those normative laws aforementioned. But the real world is pluralistic in nature, harboring many cults, faiths and beliefs under one roof. Such a mind incarceration creates a thick wall amongst disparate groups. Without tolerance, discrimination transpires. Each group attempts to impose their beliefs upon the others, and interpret the world in their own context. They vow to bring their own groups’ ideologies and visions to realization, while subjugating the others who dissent.
But to me, the ultimate cause, the highest cause of it all, is neither my religion, nor my beliefs, but world peace. My inspiration comes from a story set in ancient China that depicts the horrendous wars between several nations which brought nothing but blood and losses. China was split into multiple nations at that time, and the strongest country of them all, the Qin nation, battled ferociously to unite all nations under a single ruler. The protagonist, an avid sword and calligraphy lover, was determined to take the despotic Qin ruler’s life to avenge his countrymen who lost their lives to the Qin army. As he sought for the highest realization in calligraphy, a revelation came to him. He then abandoned his assassination plan, even after he had arduously fought through the thick walls of army and finally stood right in front of the Qin ruler. “All under heaven”. If the Qin ruler succeed in uniting all nations, there would not be wars in the future. The Qin ruler was surprised to realize that the person who understood his aspiration most was the person he feared most. In order to pacify the enraging ministers, the Qin ruler had no choice but to take the assassin’s life. The assassin willingly accepted his imminent death, all in the name of world peace. Soon, the Qin nation succeeded in uniting all nations, and peace prevailed for as long as it could be.
Perhaps, if we are not too attached to a group, but instead identify humanity as the uniting factor that braces us all, war would not have happened, and peace shall flourish.