Tribalism

Tribal

Sarah A. Hoyt talks about Tribalism:

Tribalism is the bane of mankind.

If there really were no great civilizations before ours, the fault would be squarely laid at the feet of tribalism.

To the extent the West has managed to take humanity further — further away from want, further away from famine, further away from the misery of barbarism — it is because through a combination of historical, philosophical and religious circumstances, the west (some places to a higher extent than others) came to view humans as all (more or less) part of the same tribe. All “human.”

Because you see, in tribalism you don’t. Those people who are related to you, or look like you, or tie their flegfardt as you do are people. Everyone else, them over there, who wear their spoons sideways? They’re not human. They’re terrifying animals who look like humans but who are as likely to kill you and eat you as look at you.

In the deep past of mankind — AND STILL IN MUCH OF THE WORLD — your humanity is conditional on how close you resemble the tribe in question and sometimes on whether you were raised there.

In the US we joke that there are places like small town New England or places in the Appalachia where if you haven’t lived there three generations you’re foreigners. Many places in Europe are or were like that till recently, (at least the one I came from was submerged in “foreigners” sometimes literally, so it’s no longer like that) but that’s not what I am talking about. It is perhaps the narrow edge of it.

However in true tribalism, you really don’t consider the rest of humanity “human.” The corollary, by the way, is that you don’t consider yourself quite human. You’re a being of the group. Your identity, the fact that you’re human at all is wrapped up in this sometimes very small group of people. You only make sense in connection with them.

Even the place I came from was/is a bit like that. It’s the West, of course, and of course other people are human, but there is an overwhelming tendency to think of yourself only in relation to the family, the tribe and their needs.

Sarah goes on for a bit. You can read the whole thing here.