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"Us versus them" versus "we": the desire for the infinite as the source of solidarity

If our identity with other members as members of the same group is a function of our sharing desires together, then there is always the danger that we will find it impossible to identify at all with those whose goals seem to differ from ours entirely.  If they seem to differ from in their desires, then why not treat them as either threatening or useful to our attainment of goals that we share in common with each other but not with them, but not as possible friends, compatriots or cosmopolitans. Without common desire, there is no common life, and without a common life, there is no justice.

There is only one basis that guarantees that we can truly identify with others, regardless of how very different their world may be from ours (think of science fantasy scenarios): that is a regard for the other as not only desiring specific goods that differ from yours, but as having a more basic desire for what cannot be specified to being of "this kind" rather than "that kind" because it is inherently unlimited.  The desire for what is beyond all imagining, the desire that animates our imagination to create new things: the desire for the infinite.

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