Alterity can be a powerful and unifying concept, serving to bring people together passionately towards a common goal. It has a far reaching effect in any scope or scale, from amalgamating warring local houses and tribes as in 11th Century France to coalescing adversative countries as in the Russian-American alliance during World War II. This essay will track the notion of alterity throughout history, starting with how it was used in The Song of Roland, …showed first 75 words of 1012 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1012 total…d both claim that God is with them, each respectively sharing their views through a taped speech by Osama Bin Laden and a recent speech by George Bush delivered to a joint session of congress. History shows that alterity, although a powerful ally, has very little success in actually annihilating the opposition. This may suggest the futility of the current conflict, but traditionally it also indicates that our war will be a long fought battle.