»Difference exerts an uncanny fascination for all of us. Contemporary social and cultural theory exhibits an obsessive concern with issues of difference, and such is the malleability of the term that almost anything can be subsumed under it. This passion for difference seems to be linked to its unspoken and under-theorized pair, «the same» or «sameness». This is not implied, of course, in the deconstructionist notion of difference, but it is implicitly there in much feminist and social science theorizing, as well as in contemporary political activism.« (from: H. Moore, »A passion for difference«)

Think about it: Is your picture of mankind mainly dominated by the idea of sameness or difference? And what does this imply? Do you hold the opinion, that sameness is fruitful/boring, or that differences between peoples can never be bridged? That real understanding is possible/not possible? It depends a lot on these basic assumptions.