Why can't we all live in harmony?

When people say that, what they usually mean is "Why can't we all live in melody?"

Let me explain.

People who desire "harmony" have a particular goal in mind. Usually they expect everyone to be like-minded, with only a few superficial differences that are easy for them to feel comfortable with. The mindset in question will be set by the majority or by whoever is leading the civilization. The enemies of this so-called harmony are dissenters, people who violate the status quo, who don't accept their place in life, essentially.

In music, however, harmony is not the tune that everyone sings. In fact, it is usually only sung by one or two people, and it may not even sound anything like the melody. It is the difference of the harmony that makes it essential. Get a bunch of people around to sing the melody, and it will sound nice, but add in a handful of harmonizers and the song can be breathtaking.

Following that definition, "living in harmony" would not mean always following the same rules and getting along just fine. It means dissent. It means hearing voices that go against the grain, minority views that don't really sound anything like the mainstream opinion but by their inclusion they make thought and life and humanity into something bigger than it used to be. It means embracing the contrasts between human beings instead of trying to smooth them out into a collective. It means less of a melting pot and more of a tossed salad, but tossed salads are a thing of beauty, with green and red and white and orange and purple splayed out here and there, and no bite tastes exactly the same as the one before it.

That's a kind of harmony that I would love to live in.