Man is not a tribal creature - or, worse still, a tribalistic creature - but a social creature. It is in his nature to undertake collective endeavors, but it is not in his nature to submit to collectivist enslavement. His natural urge is to cooperate, not to serve, and all of his specifically human accomplishments bear the clear mark of individual will, not of herd instinct.
Tribalism and collectivism may be alluring and addictive - as evil things usually are - but they are unnatural in the sense that they diminish our humanity and stifle its potential. They are a caricature of human coexistence, not its natural form, and it is crucial to bear this in mind whenever power-hungry swindlers equate what is popular with what is natural. Society is a harmony of individual desires - it is only the mob that is a cacophony of animalistic lusts. If we want to belong to the former and never fall victim to the latter, it is imperative to remember that they couldn't be further apart, and that the human mind needs to be stupefied if it is to forget this fact.
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There is evidence that man is both a tribalistic "creature" and a social "creature. Ironicall many who favor liberty have indicated based on their actions that they are tribalistic by labeling themselves and others who agree with them with labela and placing them into camps within a larger camp of people they claim to be part of. There are people within the liberty movement who have formed caucuses and claim they are a member of the such and such caucus. Also their are sports fans (I am ) who support a particular team. There are fight sthat have broken out at sporting events between fans of different teams. That is tribalism. Tribes have existed and continue to. The history of people everywhere be it the Middle East, Europe, Africa, the Americas has been a history of peple who have members of tribes. Many people seem to want to find ways that separate themselves and their friends from others. For better or worse that seems to be human nature. There is also evidence that in spite of tribalism people are also social "creatures".
ReplyDeleteIt comes down to "level of consciousness" (LOC). Lower LOCs have a limited scope of awareness, and a limited ability to discern, much less follow their own path. Groupthink pervades the lower LOCs. A social creature we are, but at these lower LOCs, that natural urge gets subsumed under labels, groups, tribal identifications.
DeleteIt is only by increasing one's LOC that the higher attributes of human evolution can be realized. It’s our only way out of this mess we call civilization.
See: http://www.kenwilber.com/Writings/PDF/IntroductiontotheIntegralApproach_GENERAL_2005_NN.pdf