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!”
Did it ever occur to you that there are societal and family benefits to a certain amount of tribalism that go beyond promulgating antiquated beliefs? Have you ever considered that your rejection of so-called tribalism is actually an emotional reaction, based no doubt upon some formative issues, rather than an intellectual one? Might it also be that your knee jerk disgust has created an inability in you to differentiate between beneficial tribalism and the more blind extreme forms? Is it possible that you don't grasp that many folks willingly choose what works for them because of the aforementioned benefits?
I have to conduct some commerce now, but I'll expand upon this later...