u235

I have a neat idea. There are several longstanding global conflicts that seem to have no end in sight, products of generations of educated hatred that must be a part of genetic heritage at this point. A good examples of this are the Israelis and Palestinians. Another are the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Sure there's lots more of unhappy culture-couples out there but lets start with these guys.

I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment so bear with me.

It's said you need black to understand white, you need hate to understand love, basically you need to have a side in order to define the other. It's my hypothesis that these pairs actually share a symbiotic relationship wherein the very existence of one side totally defines the other. If the question is "Who are you?" the answer is "I'm not them" where it doesn't really matter who 'them' are or what they're like. Tall, short, fat, thin, smelly, non-smelly, one side might totally resemble the other (when naked and in the shower) but dressed up, complete with signs, insignias and weapons you immediately know on which side of the street you're welcome on. The point I'm getting to is that these sides are so very used to their "enemies" that it makes me wonder - if someone were to wife-swap antagonists, what would be the result? To be precise, lets say you moved all the Irish Catholics lock, stock and barrel into the space occupied by the Palestinians and the Palestinians into Ireland's Catholic areas, what would happen next?

Well a few things are pretty easy from the logistical sense. I imagine the Palestinians would all head for the nearest pub and probably go into gastronomic shock (most people do when confronted with menu items such as "Toad in the Hole" or "Bubble and Squeak"). The Catholics on the other hand would probably have to have the requisite amount of sun-block products air lifted in bulk. Jokes aside what the hell does happen when the enemy you know isn't on the other side any more? It's one thing to become temporarily united with your enemy when confronted with a common threat such as environmental disaster or an attack from a third party, it's another thing entirely to wake up one day to have the chessboard changed to backgammon underneath you.

I understand the analogy falls short in the principle because when you have 2 parties laying claim for historical reasons to the same space, well the twain just ain't ever going to meet. But I proposed this as a mental exercise. Picture if you can what the Israelis might say to the Catholics, and the same for the Protestants and the Palestinians. Suddenly the differences would be far more obvious, visually as well as culturally - could there be a resolution, or would these new sides find reasons to hate each other just as quickly? Is it at all possible for a race to say "No, my beef was with the other guy, and because you're new we can figure out how to get along"? Or does the entrenched political hegemony require the existence of a genocidal threat?

I'm certainly not smart enough to figure that one out on my own, but it's a thought worth pondering...