Tribalism: The Importance of Social Cohesion in the Modern World

Long ago, our ancestors hunted in groups with spears of wood tipped with stone, wore furs of beasts they had claimed themselves, and survived by moving fairly regularly while hunting for and gathering food. Foraging together, conserving and sharing resources, innovation and cooperation were all keys to survival for our kind, and it led us to where we are today. Our innately social qualities, the level of which distinguishes humans from all other known species, have led us from small families and tribes slowly spreading across the earth to mighty empires and modern nation-states. We are so successful because of our innovation and cooperation in large groups, and it’s a legacy we cannot ignore. Humans are not overly capable individually, there are many other predatory species larger, stronger and faster, with the likes of claws, large teeth and nocturnal vision to assist them. We are but primates, great apes, and not even the largest or strongest of them. We’ve required groups of us: tribes, clans, kingdoms and nations, to survive and thrive, and we’ve carried this trend with us into the modern day. While fundamental to our humanity, our nature hasn’t keep pace with technology and our lifestyles in the modern West, and this has caused some interesting discrepancies which need to be addressed if we are to truly grapple with the issues of our time.

In this age of cars, phones, the internet, suburbs, large and growing urban centers, mass transit, passenger flight, constitutional nation-states dominated by democratic republics and Western-led globalism, it is very easy to forget where we came from. The vast majority of human history was nothing like what we experience today. The story of the entirety of human civilization is but a cliff note in the history of  our species, most of which was spent in relatively small groups of hunter-gatherers, much like the tribes, clans and confederations of Native American nations before European colonization. Writing didn’t even exist until a handful of thousands of years ago, a mere blip on the radar of our already very young species.

Believed to have emerged in eastern Africa somewhere around one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, at least in our anatomically modern form, humans did not easily nor quickly colonize the landmass of the earth. We struggled to adapt at times, ran into predators or geography which slowed our progress while diseases nearly wiped out certain populations, and constantly sat on a blade’s edge between having what we needed, and losing lives do to lack of necessities.

Being primates, we humans tend to give birth to one newborn at a time, and have a higher chance of complications during labor than many other mammalian species. We also each require decades to fully develop as adults, notably longer than most other species, even mammalian. So, even though groups of adult humans have proven extremely effective at surviving and thriving on this planet, we require a large investment of time, energy and resources to get to that state. As such, we saw a very slow growth curve in our population until much more recently in our history, a level of gradual growth that is very easy to forget in our age of more than seven and a half billion living people more concerned with overpopulation and climate change than survival of the species.

Even when humans finally began founding permanent settlements and forming culturally and linguistically distinct regional alliances, such as those in the Nile River Basin in modern Egypt, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates in modern Iraq, the Indus River Valley in modern Pakistan and India, or the Yellow River in modern China, technological progress, population growth, and social development occurred rather slowly by comparison to today. This required a different way of thinking from what we’re accustomed to: a central focus on family, honor, martial skill, defined gender roles, and survival. Especially during our hunter-gatherer days, there is much evidence many tribes were led by counsels of elders, often including or dominated by women. Even today, surviving hunter-gatherer societies still should an impressive degree of egalitarianism and cooperation among members and leaders.

Yet, in times of crisis, we humans tend to rally around a central figure, typically an adult male that inspires confidence in his abilities and skills and gives us perceived answers to our problems. This manifests even today, as politicians thrive on exaggerating our challenges and over-simplifying solutions to them, all the while telling us they are the best person to lead us. This reactionary tendency is present in all humans, a hardwired response we all share, and while often more damaging that productive in the modern day, proved invaluable to our day-to-day survival throughout most of our history.

We have developed to be a territorial species, to assure our ability to obtain the resources we require, and thus have presented a warrior strain, genetically and culturally, to protect our imagined or needed span of control. Throughout our history, this role has been performed almost exclusively by males. As said in Philosophical Transactions, “Furthermore, where there is intergroup conflict characterized by violence, injury or death, we find that such acts of aggression are perpetuated almost exclusively by men. In fact, research suggests that men's tendency to engage in coalitional aggression is manifest in all cultures, modern and traditional, and is therefore considered a human universal."

Whether it be to protect against attack from predators, fellow humans of an opposing tribe, or to attack others in an attempt to gain resources or territory, our tendency towards violence developed early on. The realities of our environment and requirements for survival shaped our development as a species, leading to our banding together into groups, differentiated roles and professions, collective cooperation and coordination, strong leadership structures, and defined gender roles, even though they were more or less equal early on. We are not alone, as species, “including hyaenas, wolves, lions and most social primates, therefore suggesting some degree of phylogenetic consistency,” demonstrate intergroup conflict, but humans clearly demonstrate a much greater scale of conflict and degree of social structure.

We are so tribalistic today because it was required of us then. We arrange ourselves into groups and see others, even members of our own species, as potentially hostile outsiders due to the necessity of our past. Many of our childrearing traditions, religious dogma, stereotypical gender roles, criminal justice mores, and social and cultural customs are relics of an age where such things were not a comfortable luxury, but required for our continued existence. From spirituality to trade, making war to suing for peace, family structure to nation-building, our sociality and instincts regarding interaction with other people defines us as humans. Human psychology has been shaped by our collective past, and we are still benefitting from and struggling with that legacy today.

While there are many universals of human psychology and culture, such as spirituality, love, kinship, hatred, peace-making, marriage, political alliances, various rituals, and war, how we express these quintessentially human traits varies greatly over time, place and culture. For example, our modern, Western view of romantic love is not shared by many surviving African hunter-gatherer tribes. According to Anthropological Theory, while love between a husband and wife does indeed exist, it is not the center of the family or tribe, kinship is. Marriage is seen as necessary, and the associated love a delightful but un-needed byproduct. “Even in these societies this thing called love may creep in. When it does, the stricken individual is believed to have been bewitched." So, while marriage and the family exist in all known cultures, the centrality of the nuclear family , and the importance of a romantic connection, varies greatly.

Spirituality or claiming of a religion is another obvious nearly-universal human experience. From the early days of sun, ancestor, or animal-spirit worship, which still carries through to today in several cultures, to god-kings and powerful priest-driven polytheistic beliefs during early civilizations, to the emergence of monotheistic religions over the last several thousand years, to something of a rediscovery of our more simplistic, natural, and honest spirituality in modern times, some form of spiritual expression has permeated every known human culture. While driven to connect with fellow humans, we are also profoundly driven to connect with and understand the world and universe around us. At its best, this spirituality leads us to be superior versions of ourselves, and at its worst, it has led to some of the greatest tragedies known to mankind.

And that dichotomy, between the best and worst aspects of humanity, permeates nearly every aspect of human individuals and civilization. We are at once an incredibly innovative, dynamic, intelligent, social, empathetic, nurturing, and resourceful species, while also being remarkably selfish, hurtful, cut-throat, murderous, hateful, hypocritical and closed-minded at various times. We see these traits just as much today as in ages past, humans truly haven’t changed much over the last several tens of thousands of years. Yet, we have a greater understanding of ourselves and each other than ever before. We have technology and a surplus of resources that allow us to connect and enjoy a standard of living unattainable for even the wealthiest rulers in days past. We have improved so much in our lives, at least in the West, yet we still have so far to go to truly maximize our collective human potential.

One can see our tribalistic tendencies all too clearly in the modern world. On the one hand, it has been crucial to our modern nation-states, to our democratic republics, to industrial capitalism and so many of the good things the human collective has to offer. On the other side, however, there is still much poverty in the world, corruption runs rampant in all societies at all levels, and globalization has not equally benefitted everyone by a long-shot. As said in the book, Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism, while globalization often carries the promise of inclusion and connection, that has not always been the case. “We are implicitly reminded that the present world can be characterized as ‘global savage’ in a second sense - that is, globalization as a savagely distancing and mediating force; globalization that cares little for those who cannot keep up, and fears those who are its ‘others.'"

This sentiment echoes a trait that is and has always been inherent to humanity: insular thinking. We tend to fear and push away what we don’t understand, while also being explorers and dreamers. We have a need to feel safe, which is entirely understandable, but is often pursued at the expense of what is objectively right, or truly beneficial. Take the proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, or so called “Muslim ban,” executive order. Both demonstrate what is ideally intended to protect Americans and safeguard our interests, but falls into the trap of being an oversimplified answer to a far more complex problem.

All of this brings us to the point of how best to hone and channel our innate protectionist, reactionary and tribalistic instincts. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to protect your people, keep your community safe for your family, or desire and work for a better life for yourself and your family. But, there are effective and ineffective ways to go about doing so, and achieving the latter is what all of us ideally desire. Finding the correct balance is tricky, and there are always unintended side-effects, but we can learn some important lessons from our most successful ancestors in maximizing our chance of success.

In addition, technology and globalization has left many in the West feeling less connected and purpose-driven than our hunter-gatherer or even early agrarian ancestors could have achieved if they’d wanted to. In a pre-agrarian nomadic tribe, every member was needed and useful, everyone had a role, and (most) everyone contributed. You were around your kin constantly, protected your territory and people aggressively, provided for or nurtured your family, and they fulfilled the same roles for you. Purpose and connection was built into their lives, for better or worse, and the world around them was a constant danger and adventure.

This is the sort of world our bodies and minds are best adapted for. We need purpose and challenge and connection. Love, camaraderie, and kinship are crucial elements for a healthy life both then and now. Our lives are far more efficient and easy, personal freedom and expression has never been easier to achieve, but in exchange, many of us have forgotten how to fulfill some of our most basic of human needs. And, it shows in our society.

There is absolutely no reason why we cannot reclaim our connectivity and purpose, however, we simply need to intentionally do so. Despite many of the complaints about the Millennial generation, of which I am a part, we have a tendency of not settling for the status quo. Perhaps a result of reaching adulthood during the Great Recession, or perhaps because we were raised to believe we can accomplish nearly anything we set our mind to, and have since been slowed down with a healthy dose of reality, we’ve collectively had to embrace something of a ‘return to the basics’ in our lives. It’s been a positive experience for many of us overall.

This trend among young people speaks to a greater longing on the part of all humanity. A certain resurgent tribalism, connected, empathetic, and geared for the twenty-first century, seems poised for rapid acceptance among many. But in this age of hyper-partisanship and ‘fake news,’ both actually fake and just distasteful to some, there are some key concepts to remember and employ. As said in The New Tribalism, “We must refuse to accept simple slogans in place of thoughtful analysis. We must demand of our media coverage meaning and context of the issues. We must talk to our friends and neighbors conscientiously about the consequences of sudden and extreme action in the service of an inflammatory single issue. And, we must let no single-issue demagogue dominate our thinking." I could not agree more.

Resetting the American Dream: Back to the Basics

Update: This post is rather out-of-date at this point, but I will leave it up as something of a comparison to where I began with this blog.

As Republican primary candidates release their job plans, bash Obama and each other, and incite the greatness of America at every opportunity, the economy is taking center stage. This is completely expected, of course. With sluggish domestic growth potentially leading to a 'double dip', an unemployment rate nearing 10% nationally, the euro crisis looming across the pond, and the apparent lack of effective leadership, all eyes have turned to the importance of getting our economy back on track with sustainable growth and meaningful job creation and retention.
As a 22 year-old college student, I have a special interest in seeing our economy improve, and improve soon. That is not to say those younger or older than myself necessarily care less than I, merely that I am part of a generation whose potential is intimately tied to the success or failure of our economic recovery.
It is into this environment that I have decided to begin a series detailing economic reform I believe will dramatically and relatively quickly turn our economy around. My core philosophy involves my belief that we can simultaneously reform and  streamline a number of industries while spending less money, and integrate private investment with limited government leadership and regulation to ideally produce a more efficient economy and equitable jobs market.
This will be a series about renewing and reviewing our economic machine, resetting the march of the traditional 'American Dream,' and bringing our nation's focus back to the basics that allowed us to soar to the cultural, military, and economic heights we have achieved in less than 300 years.
Achieving this will involve discussing such issues as: streamlining the government and changing the economic climate of our nation through federal regulations and policy changes; the healthcare industry from restructuring insurance to adjusting medical training and standards; reforming our public education system through refocusing on how we prepare teachers, teach various learning styles, and prepare students for college and the jobs market; reworking the criminal justice system to create a more efficient industry that costs less and works better for more people; completely overhauling social welfare and entitlements to increasingly privatize retirement and medical care, develop a welfare system that helps more of the right people, while preventing those who do not require such services from taking advantage of the system, all for a lower cost than we currently expend; restructure certain aspects of the financial sector to encourage responsible lending and growth, and prevent another scenario like that of the 2008 housing collapse; reviewing industries that would benefit America the most, from bringing back efficient manufacturing on a larger scale to retooling our service, financial, energy, and manufacturing sectors to work more efficiently individually and collectively; expanding and diversifying our energy sector to not only create more jobs and become increasingly independent in the short-term, but encourage gains in renewable sources and cooperation of various companies and specific industries to produce a drastically more cost-effective and efficient system in the long-term; reform of our tax code to create a system that is not only more simplistic and easily understood by the common citizen, but is also far more cost effective and beneficial for individuals, companies, and even the government; and likely a few other issues I have not laid out here.
As daunting as this list is, I plan on tackling each issue separately, each with its own full-length entry. Social issues that are either important to me, or are of economic importance may sneak their way into this series as well.
I must warn you I am a registered Republican, and will likely be writing slightly from the right of the political mainstream. Nonetheless, I plan on being as moderate, rational, and pragmatic as possible regardless of traditional viewpoints. Each entry in this series will be thoroughly researched and contemplated, and though I have many of my own ideas from the start I will input plans and ideas from both sides of the political spectrum if available.
I am writing this as much for myself as anyone reading, and in fact would not particularly mind if this remained something of a journal exclusively for my own thoughts. My curiosity for different viewpoints and desire for healthy debate have motivated me otherwise, however, and I hope to interest at least a few passing individuals over time.
In any case, I look forward to this ride, whether the following ideas affect policy-makers and power players, or just myself. One way or another, good times will roll.

Edit: Though I still find politics just as interesting as I did when I wrote this, school has taken up much of my time, and I have decided to write about simpler, lighter topics as I choose. For example, I just wrote about my perspective on animated films, and I plan on continuing in that vein as opposed to more serious and research-heavy posts that politics would require. I may still write about politics, but for now they will be independent and outside of any organized series.