Civilization’s broadening of identity has contained but never eradicated group hatred

Evidence

Mistrust, fear, hate of the other are part of the oldest, deepest layers of our being, going back to the beginnings of human life, and even beyond that. The rise of civilisation brought a wider and more inclusive definition of identity and therefore of otherness, through religion, culture, and citizenship. In the more enlightened societies, these forces have served to abate and control this primitive natural hostility, but even religion, culture, and civic loyalty have not been able to eradicate group hatred, and at times they themselves have been perverted to its use. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1052

Categorization

• APHORISMS: A sobering reflection: every civilizational tool for widening identity — religion, culture, citizenship — can itself be perverted into hatred’s instrument.