"People have been so encouraged by society to focus on apparent differences that they fail to see meaningful similarities among ideas, individuals, and groups."

人们被社会鼓励而将注意力集中于显而易见的差异上，以至于人们已经无法看到各种理念、个人和群体之间的有意义的相似。

People in different cultural environments would respond differently to this statement.

1. On the one hand, western cultures tend to focus on differences among ideas, individuals and groups.

2. The danger of traditional societies, on the other hand, is to ignore differences forcing individuals and groups to conform to one authority.

3. A healthy attitude is to be sensitive to both differences and similarities.

统一和差异