United We Stand, Divided We Fall

 

Image by OpenAI

by Julie Telgenhoff

Hey, America. When did we stop believing something that was once ingrained in all of us?

United we stand. Divided we fall.

It was never merely a patriotic slogan. It was a warning. A united population is difficult to control. A divided population will destroy itself while those benefiting from the division remain safely above the fight.

Former Soviet propagandist Yuri Bezmenov described ideological subversion as a gradual process involving demoralization, destabilization, crisis and normalization. First, people lose confidence in their country, institutions and one another. Then the structures holding society together become unstable. A crisis follows, creating fear and confusion. Finally, conditions that once would have been unthinkable become accepted as normal.

Look around.

Americans are now separated by politics, race, religion, class, gender, vaccination status and countless manufactured identities. We no longer simply disagree. We are trained to see one another as dangerous.

Meanwhile, the middle class continues to weaken.

In 2020, independent businesses across America were ordered to close while major retailers remained open. Many small businesses never recovered. Wealth and commerce moved upward toward corporations with the money and infrastructure to survive. Whether every consequence was planned hardly changes the outcome. Independent ownership declined, corporate power expanded and millions became more economically vulnerable.

Now we are shown record stock prices and told that prosperity has returned. The average 401(k) balance recently jumped 10.5 percent from March through June 2026. Fidelity reported a record 769,000 401(k) millionaires.

That sounds like widespread wealth until we remember that those millionaires represent only a small fraction of retirement account holders. Beneath the glittering headline is another America, one living with debt, unaffordable housing, medical bills and little protection from the next disruption.

This is how division conceals consolidation. While ordinary people fight horizontally, wealth and power move vertically.

Perhaps the greatest psychological manipulation was convincing Americans that their neighbors were the enemy. The left blames the right. The right blames the left. Each side waits for its preferred institutions to confirm what it should believe, while the same underlying system becomes larger, richer and more controlling.

United we stand. Divided we fall.

We didn't forget the words, we just forgot why they mattered.

Also, read my article:  The Illusion of Solidarity: How 2020 Divided Society and Conditioned Us for What Comes Next