Social cohesion must be guarded against divisive political rhetoric

When a community sanctions cruel and inhumane treatment of any group and defends indefensible policies, then community life as a whole is under treat.

When citizens prove ready to enlist in popular prejudice they open the door to artificial divisions among men that start as subtle differences and widen to a chasm.

If social disintegration can be seen as a continuum then the point at which a community turns on itself is an extreme indicator.

Words, then, become the medium by which societies shift along the spectrum. The only insurance against the excesses of society, is an intrinsic acceptance that individual wellbeing is inextricably bound up with the whole. This intangible element of human living I will call (for want of a better term) "empathy".

If I can allow you to falter for my own ends, if I can make profit at your expense, if I can intern you for my security, then I am no better than a barbarian.

The test of a community's fibre rests with the capacity of a community to stay the hand of jaundiced politicians who espouse rhetoric injurious to the common good. Yet if words can corrupt so too can they inspire - and we will rise or fall as surely as our leaders are good or bad.