Our Tribal Hearts and the Herd Mentality
reverendhornibastard
Depraved Deacon of Degeneracy
Evolution provided us with a lot more than a bipedal gait, opposable thumbs and dentition appropriate for an omnivorous diet. It also provided us with a behavioral repertoire that aided our survival during the arduous, lean years that span most of human history. But some of those behaviors are now counterproductive and could easily lead us to our doom.
Our tribal hearts are certainly among this increasingly burdensome evolutionary baggage.
We are inherently “tribal” animals. During most of human history, our basic social structure was tribal (similar to the societies of our closest surviving relatives, the chimpanzees). Our innate world view is largely grounded on distinguishing between “us” and “them.”
Establishing and maintaining tribal affiliation was critical for human survival. It helped ensure social cohesion within the tribe. It facilitated group defense and communal sharing of scarce resources. It also sharpened our ability to compete successfully with other tribes.
Failure to adhere to tribal views and behaviors put you at risk of being short-changed at dinner or worse. If your tribal allegiance was in doubt, you might be cast into the darkness beyond the glow of the tribal campfire where you would be all alone to face the dreaded “them” and the predators that feasted nightly on humans wandering in the dark.
Consequently, our forebears going back to the dawn of our species did
whatever it took to reaffirm their allegiance to the tribe. Facts and logic were useless extravagances to our untutored ancestors.
Starting to sound familiar yet?
Although most humans don’t live in tribal societies anymore, we haven’t silenced the beating of our tribal hearts. The urge to show allegiance to our tribe remains incredibly strong.
Religious and political leaders know how to tug on our tribal hearts. This appeal to our tribal instincts prevents us from having intelligent, open minded discussions on religious or political issues. Discussions over religion and politics quickly cease to be about facts, logic or objectively gathered evidence and instead devolve into a vicious battle in which the main objective is the vilification and humiliation of those idiots who pray to the wrong god or who support the wrong candidate.
All humans are tribal by nature and we are ALL susceptible to this. It doesn’t matter on which side of the political or religious divide you sit.
How can you tell whether you are falling victim to your tribal instincts and ignoring facts and logic?
Do you identify with a religious or political group sufficiently identifiable that it has a label? Are you a progressive? A liberal? A traditional conservative? A MAGA baseball capper? Are you Muslim? Born again Christian? Jehovah Witness? Amish? Hindu?
Do most of your views conform to the views expected of your tribe ... I mean of your political or religious group?
Now here is the really tricky part.
Do you identify as a member of a group because your beliefs generally conform to those held by the group or is it the other way around? Do you conform your beliefs to those expected of the group to which you consider yourself a member?
How can you be sure which comes first for you, religious and political beliefs and attitudes or group allegiances?
It’s very difficult to answer this question honestly. We are all incredibly good at self-deception. But careful reflection on this point may surprise you.
Our religious and political tribal affiliations require us to remain true to and support certain prescribed “pre-packaged beliefs.” These are the litmus tests that determine the strength of our allegiance and allow us do demonstrate whether we are really one of “us” or one of “them.”
But the “belief packages” often include elements that are logically unrelated or even contradictory to other mandated beliefs.
If you count yourself as a progressive, you might favor sensible gun control and regard climate change as primarily the result of human activity and one of the greatest threats to our long term survival. If you count yourself as a conservative, you are likely to oppose any sort of gun reform and regard climate change as nothing more than a ridiculous hoax.
But there is no logical link between gun reform and climate change except that views on these unrelated topics help define a person’s political allegiance. If it weren’t for the need to be true to one’s political tribe, the correlation between one’s views on gun reform and climate change would be as weak as the logical connection between these views.
No doubt you can think of many other odd correlations between logically unrelated political views.
Sometimes the prescribed beliefs are contradictory. But that doesn’t mean squat to our tribal hearts. Some don’t believe in abortion because abortion is murder. Life is sacred and only God has the right to take a life. But those same people are usually OK with the death penalty because ... well, just because! Meanwhile the idiots on the other side, the nefarious and ignorant “they,” are inexplicably against the death penalty because they say “life is sacred” and yet they are perfectly OK with late term abortions and killing babies.
Truth, facts and logic continue to be shoved aside by our innate and mindless devotion to our tribes. Our tribal hearts continue to compel us to do, say and believe whatever is required to reaffirm that we are one of “us” and not one of “them.”
“Stay in line, Mustafa! Don’t ask so many questions! You’re not an infidel are you? You know what we do to infidels don’t you? !الله أكبر”
“Remain true and loyal to your tribal group, Billy Ray! Don’t tell me you’re a fuckin’ snowflake! Remember, God hates faggots and illegal immigrants, especially those from shit hole countries!”
GOD HELP US!
ARE WE REALLY THAT STUPID?
Unfortunately, I fear the answer is “Yes!”
https://www.tuscl.net/photo.php?id=1969
Our tribal hearts are certainly among this increasingly burdensome evolutionary baggage.
We are inherently “tribal” animals. During most of human history, our basic social structure was tribal (similar to the societies of our closest surviving relatives, the chimpanzees). Our innate world view is largely grounded on distinguishing between “us” and “them.”
Establishing and maintaining tribal affiliation was critical for human survival. It helped ensure social cohesion within the tribe. It facilitated group defense and communal sharing of scarce resources. It also sharpened our ability to compete successfully with other tribes.
Failure to adhere to tribal views and behaviors put you at risk of being short-changed at dinner or worse. If your tribal allegiance was in doubt, you might be cast into the darkness beyond the glow of the tribal campfire where you would be all alone to face the dreaded “them” and the predators that feasted nightly on humans wandering in the dark.
Consequently, our forebears going back to the dawn of our species did
whatever it took to reaffirm their allegiance to the tribe. Facts and logic were useless extravagances to our untutored ancestors.
Starting to sound familiar yet?
Although most humans don’t live in tribal societies anymore, we haven’t silenced the beating of our tribal hearts. The urge to show allegiance to our tribe remains incredibly strong.
Religious and political leaders know how to tug on our tribal hearts. This appeal to our tribal instincts prevents us from having intelligent, open minded discussions on religious or political issues. Discussions over religion and politics quickly cease to be about facts, logic or objectively gathered evidence and instead devolve into a vicious battle in which the main objective is the vilification and humiliation of those idiots who pray to the wrong god or who support the wrong candidate.
All humans are tribal by nature and we are ALL susceptible to this. It doesn’t matter on which side of the political or religious divide you sit.
How can you tell whether you are falling victim to your tribal instincts and ignoring facts and logic?
Do you identify with a religious or political group sufficiently identifiable that it has a label? Are you a progressive? A liberal? A traditional conservative? A MAGA baseball capper? Are you Muslim? Born again Christian? Jehovah Witness? Amish? Hindu?
Do most of your views conform to the views expected of your tribe ... I mean of your political or religious group?
Now here is the really tricky part.
Do you identify as a member of a group because your beliefs generally conform to those held by the group or is it the other way around? Do you conform your beliefs to those expected of the group to which you consider yourself a member?
How can you be sure which comes first for you, religious and political beliefs and attitudes or group allegiances?
It’s very difficult to answer this question honestly. We are all incredibly good at self-deception. But careful reflection on this point may surprise you.
Our religious and political tribal affiliations require us to remain true to and support certain prescribed “pre-packaged beliefs.” These are the litmus tests that determine the strength of our allegiance and allow us do demonstrate whether we are really one of “us” or one of “them.”
But the “belief packages” often include elements that are logically unrelated or even contradictory to other mandated beliefs.
If you count yourself as a progressive, you might favor sensible gun control and regard climate change as primarily the result of human activity and one of the greatest threats to our long term survival. If you count yourself as a conservative, you are likely to oppose any sort of gun reform and regard climate change as nothing more than a ridiculous hoax.
But there is no logical link between gun reform and climate change except that views on these unrelated topics help define a person’s political allegiance. If it weren’t for the need to be true to one’s political tribe, the correlation between one’s views on gun reform and climate change would be as weak as the logical connection between these views.
No doubt you can think of many other odd correlations between logically unrelated political views.
Sometimes the prescribed beliefs are contradictory. But that doesn’t mean squat to our tribal hearts. Some don’t believe in abortion because abortion is murder. Life is sacred and only God has the right to take a life. But those same people are usually OK with the death penalty because ... well, just because! Meanwhile the idiots on the other side, the nefarious and ignorant “they,” are inexplicably against the death penalty because they say “life is sacred” and yet they are perfectly OK with late term abortions and killing babies.
Truth, facts and logic continue to be shoved aside by our innate and mindless devotion to our tribes. Our tribal hearts continue to compel us to do, say and believe whatever is required to reaffirm that we are one of “us” and not one of “them.”
“Stay in line, Mustafa! Don’t ask so many questions! You’re not an infidel are you? You know what we do to infidels don’t you? !الله أكبر”
“Remain true and loyal to your tribal group, Billy Ray! Don’t tell me you’re a fuckin’ snowflake! Remember, God hates faggots and illegal immigrants, especially those from shit hole countries!”
GOD HELP US!
ARE WE REALLY THAT STUPID?
Unfortunately, I fear the answer is “Yes!”
https://www.tuscl.net/photo.php?id=1969
13 comments
I have to conduct some commerce now, but I'll expand upon this later...
In small-to-moderate degrees, it's fine. But in excess, it's toxic.
The gist of my post is that our inherent tribalism often gets in the way of intelligent, informed discussions of some issues.
Consider how hot and bothered people routinely become in discussions on religion and politics
Discussions over the relative merits of Progressive or GEICO auto insurance policies don’t get so heated. In fact, there are not many other topics that are so hard to discuss rationally based on verifiable data than religion and politics.
I believe this reflects how these topics pull on our tribal hearts unlike most other issues.
I look forward to your further comments.
So-called tribalism is always the boogeyman that some intellectual challenged types use to paint others with differing views as ignorant or uninformed. it is often the only tool that these intellectually and emotionally insecure types have to lean on when others simply disagree with them.
For example, I am vehemently opposed to abortion. Now there are plenty of emotional rabid types out there who would instantly label me as a religious nut, but nothing could be further from the truth. I'm simply a father who, after listening to the heartbeats of all of my children in utero, simply cannot comprehend how anyone could willingly snuff one out. To me, killing babies for the sake of convenience is a savage and unforgivable exercise born out of pure selfishness.
The reality is that many forms of tribalism bring with them remarkable benefits. They serve as a mechanism to transmit positive value systems and codes of behavior from one generation to the next. They also provide common goals that can result in achievements far greater than those that could be realized by any one individual.
And yes, there are some extreme forms that cause more harm than good. But I would contend that these are in the sharp minority, especially here in the U.S. I would also contend that here, with all of the diversity, information and choices at our fingertips, it is far more likely that one chooses his/her "tribe" based upon his/her predispositions rather than being irretrievably indoctrinated into a core belief system.
But I disagree with your overall assessment of the benefits of tribalism and with your assertion that those who denigrate tribalism must be intellectually or emotionally impaired.
I expected ad hominem arguments from some, but not from you.
If anything, I would contend that the more classic forms of tribalism are at their lowest ebb in many generations and that we are worse off for it. Unless you consider self-involvement and self-entitlement forms of tribalism.
Just imagine a Dem politician getting up on a podium today and saying "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." The very fact that this notion makes us chuckle also demonstrates the sad shift in mindset that is at the core of so many of our current societal ills.
I do hold views on these topics but the point of the post was not to promote one position and to denigrate another.
The point was that our tribal instincts tend to compromise our ability to discuss some topics intelligently.
Granted, we are less tribal in some ways. We are more ethnically diverse as a country and even on an individual basis (my children will have to check “other” or “mixed” on forms calling for racial self-identification). But some institutions (notably political and religious ones) tug on our tribal nature like never before.
Our tribal tendencies remain very strong even if they are being focused on new, non-traditional allegiances.
The too correct for each other.
But when someone sets it up so that they reinforce each other, that is when you have fascism.
SJG
If you can't find some common ground with another, perhaps you are too deep in your tribal instincts.
yes, that does go along with my interplay hypothesis.
SJG
SJG
SJG