Truth that is in Uncertainty

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People are irredeemably tribal. 

A curious notion in contemporary high-tech sophisticated society? 

Tribalism is what we expect in Rwanda; in deepest darkest Africa; among people who supposedly don't know any better. 

The behaviour of the various groups confronting each other in the former Yugoslavia was pure tribalism at work - irrational, vicious, destructive, cretinous, but real and very dangerous.  And, before their internecine conflict the Yugoslavs belonged to the club of civilised societies. 

The need to belong to a tribe, the need for an `us' and a `them', the need to have a `them' on whom to release our repressed anger, hatred, jealousy, frustration, libido, and sadism; the emotions we have had to bottle-up to allow the `us' to coexist; this need, abhorrent though it may seem to the modern citizen, is intrinsic to each and every one of us. 

The force that drives us to tribalism can be diverted into seemingly harmless pursuits.  Sport provides an invaluable outlet, but the ugly face of tribalism is never far away.  The raw intensity of British soccer hooligans at fever pitch is a reminder to all of us of the visceral ugliness of man. 

Tribalism operates at the visceral level.  It is emotional not intellectual.  It needs and thrives on symbols, on anthems, on phrases, on myths, and on messiahs and devils.  Tribalism seeks out and is a vehicle for the release for extremes of emotion. 

These things are anathema to the contemporary technocrat.  Unrestrained emotional outpourings and social alliances based on emotion allegedly have no place in a well-organised technocracy.  Successful well-educated people are able to sublimate their tribal instincts, particularly the destructive instincts.  They are able to create worlds for themselves in which raw tribalism no longer has a place. 

Tribalism will not go away by us closing our eyes to it.  The less an individual is able to cope with the stresses and challenges of life, the more important tribalism becomes.  The more marginalised the individual, the more impressive the pageantry of tribalism, the more attractive the simplistic miracle cures it proffers, and the more potent the emotional appeal of inclusion in a group with a common cause. 

The need for tribalism must be catered for explicitly at the level of the viable Nation-State or bloc of nations.  If it is not, competing tribes will sprout and grow within the nation.  Such tribes will develop along racial, ethnic, religious, socio-economic, or dubious ideological lines.  Often they will arise among angry marginalised groups, founded and fanned by demagogues.  In response to the provocation of these tribes, the mainstream and the privileged will establish counter-tribes based on hatred, prejudice, and the instinct of self-preservation. 

Before long the Nation-State or bloc is wreaked with internal tribal conflict and the whole of society suffers.  In the extreme, the State will splinter into several smaller, less viable and less effective sovereign States, thereby undermining our long term collective viability.