Unity is strength - so why are we afraid?

There was once a farmer whose sons were always quarrelling bitterly.  No matter what he said to them they would soon start again.  One day he decided that he would give them a lesson.

 “Come my sons,” he said.  “I want you to go into the woods and each of you comes back with some sticks for the fire.”  The sons went off and after a while they returned with the sticks.  “Now, my sons” he said.  “Tie them into a bundle.”  The sons did so.

 “I wonder,” said the farmer. “Which one of you is the strongest and can break this bundle of sticks?”  Each son tried his best but no one was able to break the bundle of sticks.  “Now,” he said, “untie the bundle and take the sticks one by one and break them.”  “Oh that’s easy,” said the boys and they soon had the sticks broken, ready for the fire.  “Let this be a lesson to you,” said the farmer.   “If you let quarrels divide you, you cannot do well, but if you stand together you will be strong and overcome your problems.”

Bauer brings out that identity and (identified) unity culturally and politically are dealt as a resource of power as it shown in the story. 

The moral of this story is so obvious, but why it`s so hard to follow this principle? 

We know that stronger stays alive so we are used to „fight“ with each other  - to get what we want, to show power etc. Instead of crossing the swords we fight with the words. We see it every day around us and mostly it’s vulgar and sometimes even ugly (you remember Martin Helme words "If you're black, go back").   

Sometimes we just need to be reminded that bundle of sticks are unbreakable. Our president said one month ago that would be heedless against ourselves to divide people “we” and “they" whether based on ethnic or world view.

Bauer idea is simple: a dialogue is much more challenging in stating the own standpoint and facing the other one, but rewards (or challenges) with more resource of decisional criteria. He also brings out another argument as a question, which I totally agree - if the own position is clear and stable, why avoid to get involved with another point of view. 

So why are we afraid?