Tribe vs. Tribe: Politics, 2017 -- And Beyond?
Orin Kerr's tweet string is instructive -- everybody lining up along tribal lines in their assumptions.
Andrew Sullivan, in New York Magazine, wonders whether democracy can survive tribalism.
There was this bit:
One of the great attractions of tribalism is that you don't actually have to think very much. All you need to know on any given subject is which side you're on.
And it occurred to me, as someone who is politically neither, as I describe myself -- neither a Democrat nor a Republican -- that maybe independents are the answer. Sullivan put it differently:
There are two ideas that might be of help, it seems to me. The first is individuality. I don't mean individualism. Nothing is more conducive to tribalism than a sea of disconnected, atomized individuals searching for some broader tribe to belong to. I mean valuing the unique human being -- distinct from any group identity, quirky, full of character and contradictions, skeptical, rebellious, immune to being labeled or bludgeoned into a broader tribal grouping. This cultural antidote to tribalism, left and right, is still here in America and ready to be rediscovered. That we expanded the space for this to flourish is one of the greatest achievements of the West.Perhaps I'm biased because I'm an individual by default. I'm gay but Catholic, conservative but independent, a Brit but American, religious but secular. What tribe would ever have me? I may be an extreme case, but we all are nonconformist to some degree. Nurturing your difference or dissent from your own group is difficult; appreciating the individuality of those in other tribes is even harder. It takes effort and imagination, openness to dissent, even an occasional embrace of blasphemy.
And, at some point, we also need mutual forgiveness. It doesn't matter if you believe, as I do, that the right bears the bulk of the historical blame. No tribal conflict has ever been unwound without magnanimity. Yitzhak Rabin had it, but it was not enough. Nelson Mandela had it, and it was. In Colombia earlier this month, as a fragile peace agreement met public opposition, Pope Francis insisted that grudges be left behind: "All of us are necessary to create and form a society. This isn't just done with the 'pure-blooded' ones, but rather with everyone. And here is where the greatness of the country lies, in that there is room for all and all are important." If societies scarred by recent domestic terrorism can aim at this, why should it be so impossible for us?
But this requires, of course, first recognizing our own tribal thinking. So much of our debates are now an easy either/or rather than a complicated both/and. In our tribal certainties, we often distort what we actually believe in the quiet of our hearts, and fail to see what aspects of truth the other tribe may grasp.
Not all resistance to mass immigration or multiculturalism is mere racism or bigotry; and not every complaint about racism and sexism is baseless. Many older white Americans are not so much full of hate as full of fear. Equally, many minorities and women face genuine blocks to their advancement because of subtle and unsubtle bias, and it is not mere victim-mongering. ...
...All of this runs deeply against the grain. It's counterintuitive. It's emotionally unpleasant. It fights against our very DNA. Compared with bathing in the affirming balm of a tribe, it's deeply unsatisfying. But no one ever claimed that living in a republic was going to be easy -- if we really want to keep it.
via @CHSommers
Gee, which party has spent the better part of 50 years lining people up according to their racial voting block?
Also, same party is now upset that whites are starting to line up according to their "race" and voting that way.
I R A Darth Aggie at September 26, 2017 7:20 AM
The thing, too, is we seek validation of our own beliefs in our sources for news, opinion, religion, and even gossip. We gravitate toward those Web pages that reinforce our beliefs and tell us we made the right choices.
And the creators of those pages know it. That's why they don't offer reasoned debate anymore, they offer vicious attacks on les autres.
Who needs cults, when you can use the Internet to get the masses to brainwash themselves?
Conan the Grammarian at September 26, 2017 11:13 AM
The problem isn't that individuals want to belong to a tribe or live and associate with people like themselves. It's that some tribes want to use force and violence, directly or via the police, guns, courts and jails of the government, to subjugate, oppress and plunder others.
Ken R at September 26, 2017 11:16 AM
OTOH, it's lonely out here. As Amy frequently points out, even the most misanthropic of us has millennia of evolution pressuring us to have some company in the cave.
Grey Ghost at September 27, 2017 5:45 AM
Leave a comment