The world is being riven into two opposing camps. While some might see the distinction as between democracies and dictatorship, the reality is more complex. While the mechanisms can be skewed, Putin, Hamas, and even the somewhat meaningless Iranian president, did win elections. After all, even dictatorships wrap themselves in the cloth of democratic legitimacy. No, the dividing line between the warring parties is far simpler. It is a line between the Glory Seekers and the Pleasure Seekers.

The Glory Seekers are those countries and religious movements that are trying to recreate a glorious past (or fulfill the prophecy of a glorious future). China’s ever greater Greater China Dream is a part of recovering their proper place in the world. Russia claims ownership to Ukraine on the basis of shared roots, Ukrainians be damned. Persia lays claim to the Middle East and Turkey is making its historical moves from Libya to Syria – and beyond. For their part, Sunni Islamists pursue a futuristic vision of a truly global domination.

About 10 years ago I was at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It was 4:15 in the morning and there were only two people at the bus stop: myself and a Palestinian man about my age. He looked far, far older. His skin was weathered, and his gaunt body had the look of one that has been worked harder than it was really meant to be. I love talking to people, I love learning from them. And so, despite the fact that we shared almost no language, I did my best to communicate. The man was a Palestinian laborer who worked in Israel. His specialty was building playgrounds. I told him I was moving to Modiin and he told me he worked in Modiin. He showed me pictures of the playgrounds he’d worked on. I recognized one of them and showed him a picture of my children playing in it. I felt a little uncomfortable, an immigrant to a land he saw as his own, playing on something he built for the occupiers. Surprisingly, though, the man was delighted. Like any other proud builder, he liked to see his work well used. There was a darkness, though.

Somehow, I managed to ask him what playgrounds his own kids played on. He showed me another photo, one of his children. Every one of them was beautiful, but they were standing in a weed-filled gravel patch. “Ganavim,” he said, in the clearest words of the entire conversation. “Palestinian Authority Ganavim.” Ganavim is a Hebrew word. It means thieves.