Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Divided we Stand; United We Fall

Isn't it the other way around?

“United we stand, divided we fall” is the phrase we probably know as it has been overused in mottos and songs, agreeing in the idea of Divide and conquer (divide et impera) mentioned in Sun Tzu’s Art of War written 2500 years ago.

Together we can move mountains, alone we cannot...as they say.

These statements teach us to be parasites and dependent from others. Isn’t it more amazing if just by ourselves we can move mountains?
Divided we stand, united we fall. I first heard this in a Def Leppard Lyrics, Two Steps behind. I think about it and I realized this might be exactly what I’m doing.

I used to do things by myself, If I can’t do it, you just have to accept you can’t.. Not asking for any help, not because I don’t want to help, In fact I help people a lot. And In the process, I realized I've taught them to be dependent and I regret it. The justification between these statements is that when working individually, there is no influence applied to any of your team mates.
I used to play table tennis when I was in grade school. But a table tennis game is composed of singles and doubles match. Having no other athlete to play with me, they choose a not so good player to be my team mate. Singles match, I won. Singles, second player match, we lost as expected. And the decision game will be a doubles match. I did my best to win but table tennis is an alternating turn in which you cannot take your team mate’s ball, in short we lost. It was unfair to blame it to my team mate but I blame him anyway. I remember I was crying even before the game was finished.
Since then, I believed that working together averages your capabilities, they never add up as others used to expect. And it agrees with the laws of mathematics. If you belong to the above-average individuals, no matter how good you are, your combined output with someone else will likely be below your usual output, It is very obvious that when you're above the average, the average is always a step or more behind you.
As parasites need a stronger organism to live, people tend to climb to a higher state in society. But the Individualists work their way up without using someone to step to. The bottom line is that an independent man builds an independent community, which builds an independent and strong country. Helping others is a great deed. It will be always nice to extend a hand for a weaker individual, what’s bad is when this weaker individual became dependent and will let you carry his weight…leading both of you to your fall.

Only the weak needs help. We can be strong by not needing it. We can learn and be independent, divided we stand...united we fall.