Whenever a politician issues a call for unity two serious questions immediately arise:
- unity in exchange for what?
- who are the parties to the agreement?
Where existing political parties represent the great majority of the public “unity” can be achieved by coalition government, bipartisan agreement or other similar consensus mechanisms. However where parties have been abandoned by the general public, either a new party or a rebel alliance must be brought into the negotiations for discussions to proceed.
In an insurgency one of the principle obstacles to “unity” talks is the inchoate nature of the parties. Recall that many WW2 resistance groups were badly fragmented and remained so for years. Even governments can be badly divided. The Axis never formed a cohesive strategic or political front. The Allies did but only because opposition to Hitler held it together. Once Germany collapsed the Alliance fell apart.
Beside “who” there is the paramount question of “what”. Unity requires concession, horse trading and the deferment of irreconcilable differences. Without concessions the call for unity is a demand for surrender
But the price of unity is inevitably too high for the activists on both sides because while they pay lip service to unity what they really want is subjugation. As a practical matter unity is impossible when ideologues rule. In the immortal words of the Batman movie:
Alfred Pennyworth : You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.
Bruce Wayne : Criminals aren’t complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he’s after.
Alfred Pennyworth : With respect Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man that you don’t fully understand, either. A long time ago, I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So, we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never met anybody who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce Wayne : So why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth : Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.