"Divisional exercise is a great game of make-believe"
About this Quote
“Divisional exercise” sounds like the tidy language of bureaucracy: clean lines on a map, neat categories of people, an administrative workout in sorting and separating. MacGill punctures that veneer by calling it “a great game of make-believe,” turning what power presents as sober necessity into something childish, theatrical, and dishonest. The bite is in the mismatch. “Exercise” implies discipline and improvement; “make-believe” implies fantasy, performance, and a willful suspension of reality. Put together, they suggest that division isn’t an unfortunate byproduct of politics but a staged routine, repeated until it feels natural.
As a journalist, MacGill’s intent isn’t just to sneer at sectarian planners; it’s to reveal the mechanics of persuasion. Divisions have to be taught, rehearsed, and maintained. The “game” metaphor points to rules, referees, and winners - meaning division is not neutral. Someone benefits from the choreography, whether it’s leaders consolidating authority, institutions managing dissent, or elites redirecting anger sideways rather than upward.
The subtext is that these partitions aren’t ancient, inevitable truths; they’re manufactured narratives with costumes and scripts: flags, slogans, histories edited into simple moral fables. Calling it “great” is its own sharp twist: great as in grand, effective, crowd-pleasing. MacGill is warning that the most dangerous separations often arrive dressed as common sense, and the hardest part is admitting we’ve been cast in a story we didn’t write.
As a journalist, MacGill’s intent isn’t just to sneer at sectarian planners; it’s to reveal the mechanics of persuasion. Divisions have to be taught, rehearsed, and maintained. The “game” metaphor points to rules, referees, and winners - meaning division is not neutral. Someone benefits from the choreography, whether it’s leaders consolidating authority, institutions managing dissent, or elites redirecting anger sideways rather than upward.
The subtext is that these partitions aren’t ancient, inevitable truths; they’re manufactured narratives with costumes and scripts: flags, slogans, histories edited into simple moral fables. Calling it “great” is its own sharp twist: great as in grand, effective, crowd-pleasing. MacGill is warning that the most dangerous separations often arrive dressed as common sense, and the hardest part is admitting we’ve been cast in a story we didn’t write.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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