“Instinctively we divide mankind into friends and foes ‘-friends towards whom we have the morality of co-operation; foes towards whom we have that of competition. But this division is constantly changing; at one moment a man hates his business competitor, at another, when both are threatened by socialism or by an external enemy, he suddenly begins to view him as a brother. Always when we pass beyond the limits of the family it is the external enemy which supplies the cohesive force. In times of safety we can afford to hate our neighbor, but in times of danger – we must love him. We do not, at most times, love those whom we find sitting next to us in an omnibus, but during the blitz we did.” (pg. 7)
Here Russell is saying that humans have the instinct to divide other people into two group: friends and foes. Friends are those who they are willing to cooperate with; while, foes are those who they view as competition. The problem with these divisions is that they are constantly changing depending on the situation; in some situations, someone could be a friend while in another they are a foe. I believe that Russell is partially correct when he says that in certain situations a foe may become a friend. However, I do not agree with his claim that humans divide others into these two groups because I believe that this is too simplistic and that there is more middle ground between the two extremes of friend and foe.
Elviris Rodriguez
In life I never thought that things could be so very “black and white”. I do believe there are some things that cannot afford to be uncategorized, like when it comes to the well being of a person. I view a foe as someone that would try to harm me in any way they could, no matter how minute. I view a friend as someone who would do the exact opposite. A combination of the two would not make me feel any safer than I would with a known foe. It makes sense to me to separate people into these two categories because if a person is not for the greater good, it only leaves them to be for the negative.
Karia Hill
I agree with what you are saying. I believe that sometimes, depending on the situation, a foe can become a friend. This reminded me of a time when my teacher did a little experiment with the class. He asked a debatable question and wanted students to take sides. This made students enemies of each other. However when the teacher asked if the entire class if they hate a rivaling school, all students would agree. This comes back to the point that Russell made. A group of people may have many disagreements, but when there is an external enemy, everyone in that group works together.
Yancey Ko