The whole or the parts

Both in childhood and adulthood and likewise in tribalism and universalism there is the difference between seeing quite simply the big or the small picture

Lets begin with childhood

In childhood a persons mind is underdeveloped which is why, as the Alter Rebbe explains, small things, say a candy, a toy car etc. are big things to them

Hopefully a person’s minds develops and they begin to see what is important and what isn’t

We must understand, that people as a whole – some people in contrast to others as will be soon explained – went through this transition

For example, humanity began exceptionally selfish, which was the reason God brought the flood – it was not a punishment, it was wiping out a mentality, as in game-theory of zero-sum-game where people were small minded, they couldn’t see the benefit of collaboration, only of, as the Talmud calls it “cal dalim gvar, the stronger person wins.”

Yet we find that this mentality, though broken, was only extended to groups, so for example, Romans had true internal democracy, they had true external savagery.

A new kind of mindset and this was in the higher, not more barbaric tribalism which still goes on in Africa, amongst Arabs etc. – developed, where people could see collaboration, mutual assistance, as being far wiser than annihilation and like rats ripping one another to pieces for a small piece of cheese.

Then along came America – America is a very unique country, because as Henry Kissinger writes about Americans, they live in a gigantic bubble – from sea to sea, they have no enemies, they have no history of strife, they have no resentments – as in European countries, often going back for thousands of years, take the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland etc.

As such, a new heart was developed, one which couldn’t see anything but the benefit of collaboration, one in which savagery against any group was abhorred.