'Place' in God's 'Social' Imagination

Acts 17:24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us."

What is going on in the world today? Tension exists between people who live together. However, conflict is caused and or brought on by outsiders who appear, invade, or just step into the local arena; whether it is a family, neighborhood, town, county, state or nation. They are not from here they are from there. Yet, they (the outsiders) think that they have some right to others' local resources or have a better idea for their local situation... 'we know better than those local people who are living without a sense of what they really have or could have, they don't see the potential in what they have. They need 'us' to tell them what is good for them: they need consultants, they need investment analysts, they need our advice, they need our money, they need to be told what is good for them for their own good because they are probably like us or could be and just don't know it yet...But, we know they need 'us'. We justify appearing, invading, stepping in, we think we have the right reasons, but so do others who do the same. We say they are bad, we say they are bad. All in all, we all want the same thing- what they have. This has been socio-historical phenomenon for ages. The Roman Empire is one of the best examples, not to mention the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, China, Russia and the list could go on. When outside have a strong interest for whatever is not 'really' theirs, when they want what is on the other side of the fence, we can expect conflict. Greed is a human condition and it has no bounds. Maybe it is the survival of the fittest. That was the motivation in the past and it is now. We have yet to learn from history, though we have to learn from history... but then "There is nothing new under the sun" Ecclesiastes 1:9

Invasion is pretty clear. Stepping in seems rather helpful but (invasion and stepping in), though on the opposite ends of conflict spectrum, both still have the same agenda, something to be gained. Now, there may be a greater question about those who appear... what does that mean? People who appear may just want to be integrated in. Is that possible without conflict? Yes, if those who appear are they willing to become like the group that they appear to want to be in with? If not, then we can expect conflict as invasion is supposed. If those who appear, want to and proclaim that they are willing to integrate, then no conflict will ensue as long as those who appear want to and can fully integrate; as they succeed in their integration, there will not be conflict... there will be infusion. Could there be a question about who was there first? Yes, and there will be conflict. How will that resolve? Integration is the only way to ensure peace. Who will be the host, who will have that position must be decided? That is the difficult question and decision. If decided without conflict, then the host must come up with an integration strategy and the guest must integrate. Subordination and domination are the social dynamics that will come into this event as they (social dynamics) sustain any and every social reality; those undergoing social change and those social realities that remain in their present state. Social dynamics are the energy forces of social reality; they keep social reality from entropy. Because such forces must be engaged or face entropy, there cannot be all just winners or all just losers, there must be winners and losers. There must be a balance arrived at through legitimated acts of submission and domination. Balance does not mean all equal as in the same. It means that an equal amount of subordination and domination  has been reached.

What happens to the local person in any of these scenarios? Often they are either integrated, annexed, taken over or removed. The United States has been involved with all of these: integration of Immigrants, annexation of Mexican land and Mexicans (Treaty of Guadeloupe Hildalgo 1848), taking over Indians lands, Puerto Rico - the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico with a landing at Guanica and Hawaii - in 1993 President Clinton, apologized for the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and lastly removal... native Indians from their land.
...Interesting is that when it comes to neighborhoods, or towns... we still call it annexation.
Perhaps, we should all stay put in our place!  Acts 17:24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us."