ThirstyFish

Did you notice how easily criminals can unite in a conspiracy, while the so called "good people" can hardly agree on anything, let alone unite in any serious action? Why is that? Maybe Adam Smith was right when he implied that "self-interest motivates more powerfully and consistently than kindness, altruism, or martyrdom". But, he also warned that: ""...[a]ll for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind".

Self-interest definitely seems to be a divisive force when it comes to uniting for a good cause, but it is not the only factor. A pun attributed to Benjamin Franklin reads: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately". Are good people unable to understand this? Or, is it because, those who want to do good have hundreds of issues to figure out, but those conspiring, unite under single causes? Many activist groups and organizations are plagued by infighting usually because members can not agree on priorities; Saving the world, after all, is a complicated matter. A predetermined and simple goal, after all, is much easier to work through.

Another factor is the implicit or explicit threats by those in power. When a large number of people get together to fundamentally break the status-quo, the powerful mock, ridicule, infiltrate, force, arrest, and use violence to suppress anything they see as a threat. And, every good person has their own way of dealing with - or not dealing with - these threats. Some can not put themselves or their families at risk, some advocate non-violence while others promote violent action. But if history is any indicator, when pushed enough, people "unite", often due to the most unexpected or trivial triggers. What those in power do not seem to understand is that, there a many, many people waiting for the trigger - Waiting to unite!

Research firm Gartner, recently predicted that: A larger-scale version of an Occupy Wall Street type movement will begin by the end of 2014, indicating that social unrest will start to foster political debate. You can read a reaction to the report on Daily Kos.