Partitions IX — Abstract

Nobody asked but …

I could go on singling out the examples of partitions and unifications in history.  They might include the dereliction of a legal zone for slavery in the US, native American reservations, the usurpation of Panama, the quarantine of Tasmanian aborigines, the Australian transportation, fortifications, the Great Wall of China, the allowance of caste systems and/or class warfare, and so forth.

Divide and conquer.  Put them together in a cage and let them fight it out (ty Kent McManigal).  Give them bread and circuses (apropos of Super Bowl time).

As a software engineer, I learned that there are only two things that you can do with entities, combine them or separate them, sort them or collect them.  In the real world, one has a third option, leave them alone.  This works well as long as there is no principled reason to engage with them.

If  one must engage with others, there are only two options, individualism or collectivism.  Individualism honors the differences among others, while collectivism ignores the differences.  The ignoring of salient differences produces unforeseen consequences galore.  The recognition of important differences makes the murky future just a bit more clear.

Combining territories or dividing them without regard to the people (events and other things) therein is the equivalent of collectivism, either way.

— Kilgore Forelle

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