It must therefore be emphasized that the common submission to a ruling power by no means always leads to unification but, if the submission occurs under certain conditions, to the very opposite of it. For instance, English legislation directed a number of measures and exclusions concerning military service, the right to vote, ownership, and government positions, against non-Conformists, that is, against Presbyterians, Catholics, and Jews alike. The member of the state church thus used his prerogative to give equal expression to his hatred of all these groups. But this did not fuse the oppressed into a community of any sort; on the contrary, the hatred of the Conformist was even surpassed by the Presbyterian's hatred of the Catholic, and of the Catholic's of the Presbyterian.

XREF: Contrasts with the common solidarity narrative — oppressed groups uniting against a common enemy. Webers' observation that shared subjugation can intensify internal rivalries echoes here.

XREF: Relates to broader sociology of solidarity and in-group dynamics; counters the common assumption that a common enemy forges unity.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 335