Which history shows, can shift relatively quickly, even in generally homogenous group.
I agree with this, but this does not make an otherwise homogeneous group immune from splitting, only less likely so. This is why I said that ideology has been the main factor in disagreements (whether the group is homo or hetero). And to preserve group ideology (prevent it from splitting) you’d have to be pretty much watertight like North Korea. This is why there is so much emphasis on winning the hearts and minds of people - it’s primarily through ideology that you create a group identity. Even if you unite all the white people, based on race, you’re not going to be immune to divisive ideology, since it does not discriminate based on color.
I think what is needed is a historical awareness of political dynamics (causes-effects and factors involved), and on a larger scale. Group identities (on national levels) have made the common man into a tool or a pawn to be played in a larger global arena of power games. Of course, the common man stands invested into the society into which he was born because the national self-interest will also eventually trickle down to his own self-interest, so a common man is born to be dependent on the play of global politics by default, whether he likes it or not. And sometimes, the common man gets screwed, like a regular Syrian person, to take a recent example. So does global politics really care for the welfare of the common man? I think not. It’s primarily about ideology and power games, and the regular people are either just collateral damage or raw material to be used. And there are no innocents in this game, either. Are American people good people because their government tells them that their foreign policy is destroying nations for the good of other people (bringing democracy and freedom)? Everyone is complicit, and I think most people, at least instinctively, understand this. And of course, nobody wants to be the bad guy so we have to make up these fancy reasonings and justifications so we can lie, steal and kill, and still be the good guy in the end. This, of course, is nothing new, and has been happening since we first created a group identity.
Who determines exactly what one human being needs, at minimum? I think in most of the world now, you must have at minimum an e-mail address and a cell phone (even in shanty towns around the world). Most of the cities around the world must have at least one McDonald’s. Even Italy, which has always resisted Starbucks expansionism, is now buckling in and will open its first Starbucks next year. Will Italy be enriched by Starbucks coffee? Heck no, it’s like comparing Michelangelo to children’s doodles. But how can we not have a Starbucks in Italy?! At the very minimum, we should have one. Visit your local mall, it’s a practically a carbon copy of any other mall in the world. If you don’t have this standard set in your local town, you’re not having the minimum experience that a human being around the world should have access to. This is the world we live in now. But I digress.