“In more recent times, religious and racial diversity — in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, or contemporary Nigeria — has resulted in chaos and, occasionally, genocide. True, some nations have been able to incorporate different tribes, as in the United Kingdom’s unification of the various peoples of the British Isles, but usually after hundreds of years of fighting and only when there were underlying racial and cultural affinities that could trump tribal differences.”

2010s, America: One Nation, Indivisible (2015)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In more recent times, religious and racial diversity — in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, or contemporary Nigeria …" by Victor Davis Hanson?
Victor Davis Hanson photo
Victor Davis Hanson 41
American military historian, essayist, university professor 1953

Related quotes

José Martí photo
Victor Davis Hanson photo
George Mikes photo

“When people say England, they sometimes mean Great Britain, sometimes the United Kingdom, sometimes the British Isles, – but never England.”

George Mikes (1912–1987) Hungarian-born British author

How to Be an Alien: A Handbook for Beginners and More Advanced Pupils (1946)

Saddam Hussein photo
Jeffrey D. Sachs photo
Joni Madraiwiwi photo

“The (racial and cultural) difference is to be celebrated, not fried or criticised, and we are so much richer for it.”

Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician

Message to cadets at Xavier College in Ba, Fiji, 27 July 2005.

Kurt Waldheim photo
Ayn Rand photo
Taylor Caldwell photo

“This is the explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all massacres, and all attempts at genocide.”

Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985) Novelist

The Devil's Advocate (1952)
1950s
Context: You see, when a nation threatens another nation the people of the latter forget their factionalism, their local antagonisms, their political differences, their suspicions of each other, their religious hostilities, and band together as one unit. Leaders know that, and that is why so many of them whip up wars during periods of national crisis, or when the people become discontented and angry. The leaders stigmatize the enemy with every vice they can think of, every evil and human depravity. They stimulate their people’s natural fear of all other men by channeling it into a defined fear of just certain men, or nations. Attacking another nation, then, acts as a sort of catharsis, temporarily, on men’s fear of their immediate neighbors. This is the explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all massacres, and all attempts at genocide.

Related topics