When it comes to the way social groups organise themselves, says the researcher Jonathan Haidt, we ultimately focus on either a shared enemy or a shared goal.

It is disturbing how many organisations I’ve been a part of, both secular and religious, that were based on a shared enemy. Even more disturbingly, I have not seen religious organisations do significantly better than secular ones.

Far too often our tendency is to be like this sign, posted a few kilometers from our house on the Dunmore East strand:

In essence the creators of the sign are saying you may ride a horse on the beach and clean up your dog’s poop, but everything else is a prohibition. I’m meanin’ no disrespect, ma’am, but this message is obviously not true and I doubt it was the signmaker’s real intention. Otherwise the beach at Dunmore East would not attract thousands of tourists every summer.

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