Once upon a time there was a huge underground laboratory. It was created as a research facility for biological weapons but was abandoned a long time ago by its constructors. But it still contained a huge cage for several thousand genetically identical white laboratory rats. The lab contained also an intelligent service robot which provided food to the rats (and pretty much everything else they needed).
As the robot was powered by a nuclear battery it was still operational. Consequently the rats had survived for several decades.
They had always lived peacefully and happily.
But one day, a religious dispute between two of the semi-smart rats escalated into a fight. In the huge open cage many other rats observed the conflict and started to take sides. The whole thing quickly escalated into a huge mass brawl.
At some point in time one group gained the upper hand. To secure peace for the future of all rats, the leader of this group of semi-smart rats developed a great plan: a large wall should be built inside the open cage to separate the two groups. The winning group made sure that their share of area was a bit larger than the part of the cage the losing group got. They found this only fair, as it was the others who started the conflict by making false claims.
Of course, everybody knows that rats get aggressive if they are confined to a small area. If you put many of them inside a small cage they literally start to kill and eat each other.
But the rats, as they were only semi-smart, did not know this!
To their great misfortune they did not know themselves well enough.
So the wall was built in good faith. Soon after the wall was built, new conflicts erupted within both of the separated areas. The new fights were even more violent and this time several rats died. Quickly it was decided that the opposing groups had to be separated again. New walls were erected in both compartments to divide the once fully open cage into now four sectors of different sizes.
Over the years the process repeated several times more until the original cage was subdivided into a large number of very small sub cages. Consequently the aggression between the rats reached staggering levels. The rats in the smaller cages (inhabited by the losers of the conflicts) were of course even more aggressive than those in the larger cages (inhabited by the winners).
At some point in time the rats started to muse about what could be the reason for all this hate. The rats in the smaller cages said that they were angry because they got cheated of their fair share of cage area. They noticed the pattern of anger in many of the small cages and decided to solidarize with the rats in other small cages. They called themselves „blue rats“ and painted their cages accordingly. As a response to this threat the rats in the larger cages also united. They called themselves the „red rats“. They said that the „blue rats“ did not deserve larger cages because they were so aggressive. And that they took their cage area as a just redemption for the lives lost in the fights.
The smartest of the semi-smart female rats noticed that it was mainly the males which were involved in the fights. A group around her therefore formed an association, the „femirats“ which were very determined to limit the influence of male rats. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) they had very limited success.
After a few generations, because the rats were now strictly separated into distinct groups for a long time, rats of different cages started to develop different social norms, religious beliefs and behaviors. Some of the semi-smart rats soon concluded that there are actually different kinds of rats which need to be strictly separated. They called them „races“. The level of aggression was now so breathtakingly high that the rats started wars against rats in neighboring cages. Walls were pulled down and cages were invaded which led to the death of a great number of rats. The smartest of the semi-smart rats offered themselves as leaders in this wars. They incessantly told the tales of the crimes of the rats in the neighboring cages and pointed to the moral inferiority of the rats living in it.
Of course no one dared to remove a wall anymore now. The rats now had become so desperate that many started to pray to the almighty service robot for help.
One creative rat suggested that the fangs of all rats should be removed to avoid casualties. But the „red rats“ insisted that only the fangs of the „blue rats“ should be removed, as it was mostly them who teared down the walls. But the „blue rats“ demanded that only „blue rats“ should be allowed to keep their fangs because they were morally superior.
A three-quarter-smart scientist rat started to suspect that the large number of walls could be the reason for the increase in violence. But her theory was met with great criticism: the „red rats“ suspected that the scientist rat was in fact a „blue rat“ in disguise. That her true intention was to access the larger cages of the „red rats“ under a pretext. Even most „blue rats“ were alarmed: their cages too had even smaller cages in the proximity. When several strong rats threatened to bite her to death she stopped her research.
All the rats were actually very stressed and unhappy. But if they were asked, the „red rats“ would answer „we are very happy, we have lots of space in our cage“ and the „blue rats“ would say „we are very happy, we may have a smaller cage, but at least we have a good conscience because we are no cold hearted thieves“.
Over the years many rats died in terrible wars. Because of the desperate situation many female rats refused now to have offspring. Consequently the rat population had shrunk substantially. Furthermore, the rats made huge technological and organizational progress and managed to build high multi-storey houses. Altogether every rat had now much more space on average than at the time the first wall was built.
But the atrocities did not stop! The fragmentation process continued further and the overall situation got worse. Obviously the negative impact of the fragmentation outweighed the benefits of the increased area.
One of the rats was a misfit rat which loved to experiment with hallucinogenic mushrooms. One night he swallowed a huge dose by mistake and had an astonishing vision: if only all the walls were removed, all rats could live in peace and prosperity again!
He presented his theory with great excitement to his friends.
But they only laughed at him and said: „What an idiot you are! Everybody knows what disasters happen if a wall breaks down. Rats are evil, this is our nature! I tell you what really needs to be done: we have to annihilate our neighbors before they annihilate us!“
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