Dark Power of Tribalism and the Nature of Civilization

"Tribalism never prospers, for when it does, everyone will respect it as a true nationalism, and no-one will dare call it tribalism." ~ Ernest Gellner

"Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience." ~ Christopher Hitchens

Human history is competing tribes, with survival, power, and dominance drives defining the courses of civilizations.

Tribalism is profoundly human, a force that has driven development as well as destruction. It is an instinct that has made individuals band together for safety, but also has led to war, genocide, and societal collapse which we call failed States.

Today's world of modernity, all its technological and democratic and non-democratic ideologies notwithstanding, is not immune to this shadowy potent power. Tribalism, in fact, is not just well and alive but also thriving.

Most clearly seen is the rise of the ultranationalist fervour, as witnessed by the "America First" movements.

They attest to the primal need to protect one's own people at the cost of the external.

Ultranationalism is a murderous and discrediting form of tribalism, veiled in the language of patriotism but driven by fear and exclusion.

The age of the digital has only made these tribal impulses more intense through interconnectedness through the internet of things, most notably through social media.

The online debate is replete with abusive terms, slogans, and name-calling. On the internet, one retreats into ideological tribes, attacking outsiders with ferocity previously reserved for physical battlefields. Trolls, like war strategists of old, use words as bullets, escalating conflicts through emotional manipulation instead of reason.

Political tribalism has become a self-sustaining machine, turning every debate into an infinite war of hatred.

This new tribalism does not occur in cyber space alone. We witness the murderous fruits of unchecked sectarianism and political ideology everywhere in the world. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Sudan, Ukraine, and many other areas of the world are where tribalism has become fused with violence, religion, and ideologies.

Tribalism in its most extreme form is the origin of war and genocide.

The new left, in its embrace of identity politics, has also become an instrument of tribalism. The fight against the notion of colorblind equality dissolves the very fabric of a meritocratic society where achievement depends on effort, not group.

The more that people are being encouraged to think of themselves as members of a tribe, racial, political, or ideological, the more society disintegrates.

Tribalism is returning, not in any absolute sense of survival, but as a political instrument.