Causes of Political Division

I though the pain and truth 
Were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here
With every single hope you had shattered
--Big Country

These pages have discussed many factors that lead to political division over time. One is socialism. The more property is taken out of the hands of individuals and put in the hands of the state, then the more divisiveness is likely to grow between those who have property and those who want to appropriate it by force.

Exacerbating the problem is another factor, democracy. When control of the strong arm of government is captured by majority vote, then various factions will band together, likely into two opposing groups over time per Duverger's Law, to become the first past the post. The larger the stakes, the more the two opposing groups will seek to win the election and destroy the each other.

Another factor that Lew Rockwell reminds us about is state size in terms of population. Axiomatic to the human condition is diversity and variation. People have different preferences, including preferences related to politics. It stands to reason that as the size of a country grows, then it will be less likely that there will be agreement in terms of how the country should be governed.

A straightforward solution to the size problem is secession. Break up the big country into smaller ones so that people can associate according to their political preferences.

One group that may be catching on here is the left. Although they have long claimed that secession was a racist or treasonous initiative, leftists, because of the current state of political affairs, now seem to be grasping the merits of a break up.

Here's hoping that debates on the merits of breaking big into small escalate.