Being tribal

Family, clan, tribe – these are all clusters of individuals that form for the benefit of individual members. These groups take many forms: Bloodlines, religious/political beliefs, economic relationships and a mixture of those and many others.

One great motivator for being part of groups/networks is the human need to create a senses of security around oneself, belief wise and materially. The need to “belong” is the underlying glue of social groups.

We humans also prefer to have simple straight forward beliefs to hold on to, rather than complex ones, and therein lies a great weakness because Nature is extremely complex.

So, in order to feel comfortable we try to fit Nature (God, if you like) into simple belief systems that turns out to be very different from each other across the globe.

And there you are, a great recipe for war when the attendant economic benefits of domination after victory are made part of the equation.

One powerful form of modern tribalism is nationalism where a large group called a “nation” controlled by a state apparatus is presumed to have ultimate authority over the individual.

Today this idea is being increasingly challenged by people of multiple philosophical persuasions, from globalists to libertarians and a sense of foreboding is hardening beliefs on all sides.

As the vulnerabilities of the global economic/political/social organism that has been created during the last few centuries are being exposed by war and exploitation of natural resources, etc., would we be well advised to form smaller tribal groups for mutual protection?