Stop Chasing Unity. Start Speaking Truth.

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Stop Chasing Unity. Start Speaking Truth.

I keep seeing people online say things like, “both sides are the same,” “both parties are corrupt,” “we are being divided by the elite,” and “we must unite against the elite.”

Statements like these are problematic because they ignore a deeper truth about humans: we instinctively form communities around shared values, and that isn’t something the elite invented. Rather, it’s something they understand and exploit. Conventional ideas about unity and consensus are irrelevant and unrealistic. Expecting everyone to agree or unite against a common threat, when the opposition you’re told to unite with considers you the threat, ignores how humans actually behave. Recognizing this is crucial for understanding how power operates and why focusing on universal unity is a flawed strategy for overcoming divisive top-down political and social narratives.

Political parties are not the same on both sides, nor are they primarily about the politicians or even the elites who fund political careers and parties. They are about the values of the constituents. A party is essentially a collective of the people’s values, which politicians represent when they speak, campaign, and ultimately get elected as official voices for that party. Without representation of those values, the party, and the elites who back it, have no power.

Is it possible that corruption exists within both parties? Of course. Is it possible that elites with agendas have their hands in both parties? Absolutely. But that doesn’t negate the larger fact that a party is not about the politicians or the elites funding it; it’s about the values of the people who vote for it. A party is comprised of millions of people with a particular set of values, and those values are not the same on both sides. There may be some overlapping concerns, but ultimately, they are not identical.

Political parties are not about politicians or the elite; they are about the values of the people who vote for them. Without those values, or votes, there is no party. The same is true for social narratives pushed by either side. Without a set of values, a narrative has no power to divide us, regardless of who introduced it into the public domain.

This matters because when someone says, “the elite are dividing us,” they’re missing an important distinction.

The elite are not dividing us, we are.

The elite exploit something they understand about humanity: our natural reactions and intellectual behaviors. They insert a narrative into the public square, and we do the work of dividing ourselves according to our values. That division is instinctual, protective, and often necessary for survival.

Separation and community-building are so deeply ingrained in human behavior that we surround ourselves with people who share our values and perspectives in nearly every area of life, especially morality, traditions, and safety.

This isn’t something the elite designed or can control, and it won’t magically disappear when a society faces threats to its stability. Rather, it’s something elites exploit and attempt to steer with propaganda and deceit designed to reinforce the values they want dominating public opinion.

But ultimately, it is the people who decide what to align with. It is the people who control which set of values prevails. And that will never change.

We will always form communities of likeness, and we should, because it is essential for protecting ourselves from danger and overcoming those who would impose it upon us. Without this separation, we leave ourselves open to ruin when we fail to differentiate ourselves from harmful people and narratives.

Because this tendency is so deeply embedded in our nature, and often necessary for our safety and survival, it is unrealistic to expect that telling people to unify and stop separating themselves “because the elite are trying to divide us” will ever be effective.

It won’t.

And the elite know that.

They understand that humans naturally form communities around shared values, so they don’t try to disrupt that behavioral flow. They work with it, not against it. Their goal is not to unify everyone under their values but to tip the scales in their favor.

They know they will never get all people on one side of an issue, and they don’t need to.

It only takes a certain percentage of people unified under an ideology to overpower the opposition. This game isn’t about universal unity; it’s about percentages and domination.

A complete and organic consensus is neither necessary nor feasible. The elite grasp what those focused on universal unity often fail to see: you only need enough people on your side to gain a stronghold and dominate the other.

Unity is not the goal, domination is.

Trying to convince others to find common ground with those who stand in direct opposition to their own values, and to unite against a faceless group of “elites” most people will never encounter, is a fruitless endeavor. People will not abandon their values. They will not unite with those who represent an inversion of their values. They will not unite with those who see them as the threat and openly proclaim their intent to do them harm. And in some cases, those who they’re asked to align with agree with the same elites that inserted the narrative into the public square. Expecting them to align with their opposition, is quite often mere wishful thinking, and an ineffective strategy for overcoming top-down divisive narratives.

A better strategy is to show people the truth, exposing them to perspectives they haven’t considered, and simply allowing them to decide for themselves whether the community they’re involved with truly represents their values. Those with harmful agendas, including elites, use deception to gain a stranglehold over others’ minds.

The way to break that stranglehold and tip the scales is to break the deception by exposing the truth.

The elite with malicious intentions know this, which is why they seek to silence truth-tellers. The truth always tips the scales against deceivers. Silencing the truth stops the tipping. That’s why deceivers work so diligently to silence their opponents. Truthful speech destroys their stronghold and their domination of the opposition.

Notice that top-down narratives don’t directly focus on creating division. Instead, they focus on ideas, injustices, real or imagined, and moral questions. They target issues that ignite passion and emotion tied to one’s values.

As these narratives spread, people naturally divide themselves based on how their values align with the narrative.

The narrative itself is what separates us.

It highlights the core values and morals of those who embrace it and those who reject it. In essence, the narrative makes our mindset, and sometimes our behaviors, visible to everyone.

And it is this visibility that causes separation.

Reconciliation and unity are often impossible, unless people change their values to align with the opposition. That is unlikely in many cases because humans are highly averse to unifying with anything that represents an inversion of their core values, unless they encounter information that challenges their current allegiance and reveals a misalignment.

That is where truth-telling tips the scales.

Instead of focusing on telling people to “unite against the elite,” a more effective approach is to channel that energy into creating a massive wave of truth-telling that awakens others and brings them into greater alignment with one another, with truth as the focal point.

Not everyone will align. Many will remain opponents, some even more vehemently so.

But full alignment isn’t necessary.

Only a tipping of the scales is needed.

And it’s already happening.

The left, for example, has experienced a massive hemorrhage of constituents shifting to independent and to the right, not because someone told them to unite with their opposition, but because someone showed them the truth.

Speak the truth.

That’s how we overcome this era.

That’s how we overcome the exploitation of our minds.