“Android phones are the best phones in the world! Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot! Regardless of whatever evidence you may show me to the contrary, I will only ever buy an Android phone!”
“The Calgary Flames are the best hockey team in the NHL! If you root for any other teams, then we cannot be friends!”
“The T-Birds are the coolest clique, and they only date Pink Ladies”
What do these attitudes all have in common? They are built on the basic human instinct known as tribalism. So to is this next one. Which you have undoubtedly heard a time or two. It goes something like this:
“I don’t know how anyone can be a (insert political party)! Those people are so evil! If you belong to that party then unfriend me right now, because I don’t even want to associate with you!”
Of course this takes other flavors as well, but it is usually some variant of the same.
What Is Tribalism?
Social scientists describe tribalism as a primeval instinct that drives us to form ourselves into groups. These groups often share common ideals. Such as acceptable norms of interactions. Tribes are very often based more on socialization than on ideology. For example, I may be a rabid Apple fan boy because my father was a rabid Apple fan boy. I may root for the Calgary Flames because my parents did, and so forth.
It is not uncommon for people to become irrationally attached to their tribe. So that they begin to confound and associate their identities with the tribe. Making it very difficult for them to be rational when it comes to making any judgements that might impact the tribe.
As members of the tribe, we begin to personalize “attacks” against the tribe as though they were attacks against ourselves. For example, if someone says “The Calgary Flames Suck!”, we tend to hear it as “You suck!”, and emotionally we respond accordingly.
Even if our favorite professional sports team actually was pretty bad. We still become unable to separate attacks against the team from attacks against us. Which makes results in an irrational inability to admit that our own team has faults.
Businesses And Politicians Understand And Use Tribalism
The value of a sports rivalry is that it drives ticket sales. The value of a rivalry between competing phone platforms is that it creates loyal customers. The value of a rivalry between two competing sides within society is that it creates power for the leaders of those two opposing sides.
It doesn’t matter that these divisions create anxiety, tension, anger, and irrational behavior. The companies promoting tribalism reap the benefits of increased profits, and the politicians promoting tribalism reap the benefits of being elected into office.
Its an easy sell! Social scientists tell us that we are hardwired for this kind of divisive behavior. A natural trust of those who are close to us, and a distrust of those we don’t know meant the difference between life and death back when we lived in actual tribes. It meant security. Thus, all that the exploiters have to do, is stoke these very natural feelings within us, and before we know it, we are paying $1,200 for a phone that is probably no better than the $700 phone that the other tribe manufactures.
Rationality Is The Response To Tribalism
Don’t count on businesses or politicians to stop exploiting your natural tendencies towards tribalism. Hint: They are not going to! It is such low hanging fruit, that is so easy for them to pick, and that yields such benefits to them, that scrupulous individuals will always try to divide one tribe against another.
The response to tribalism is intelligent and rational thought. It is looking at all sides equally and separating yourself from the tribe. Consider the following suggestions:
- Stop personalizing attacks on your tribe as though they are against yourself! Perhaps some of the feedback being given to your tribe are well founded! Even if they aren’t, they are not directed towards you personally.
- Recognize that the people in the other tribe are just as good, kind, and sincere as you are. Their enthusiasm is often just as much a result of their affiliation with their tribe as yours is a product of your affiliation with your tribe. Give others the benefit of the doubt.
- Ask yourself why you even belong to the tribe that you do. Can you give a rational argument for why your tribe is “right?” How much of your animosity for the other side is rational, and how much is based in irrational tribalism?
- Decide that you are not going to be a pawn in the hands of businesses and politicians. You are not going to allow yourself to be divided just to enrich and empower someone else.
- Decide to recognize the inherent good in others. To be a uniter, rather than a divider.
It Isn’t The Right Versus The Left, It Is Those Who Divide Versus Those Who Unite
While the dividers reap significant rewards through their divisive activities, the rest of society suffers. Understand your role in being a uniter! You efforts to come together with others across all aspects of our society is one of the greatest works you can do. You are fighting back against the dividers! Against those who seek to profit by tearing the rest of us apart.
Those on the right are almost entirely good people!
Those on the left are almost entirely good people!
The problem isn’t the other tribe. The problem are those who are promoting tribalism and then pitting the two sides against each other.
When You Become Part of The Problem
You are part of the problem whenever you…
- Insist that members of the other tribe are stupid, evil, ill-informed, and so forth.
- Insist that members of the other tribe are out to get members of your tribe.
- Blame the problems of society on the other tribe.
- Refuse to associate with members of the other tribe.
- Refuse to recognize the good in members of the other tribe.
- Cut off communication with members of the other tribe.
- Vote for persons promoting division.
When You Become Part of The Solution
You are part of the solution whenever you…
- Validate the beliefs of the other tribe by listening to them.
- Maintain friendships with members of the opposite tribe.
- Set your tribe aside and look at issues based on their merits.
- Strive to see the good in the other tribe, and work to appreciate and celebrate their values.
- Stand up for members of the other tribe whenever they are being unfairly belittled.
- Vote for people who are uniters, and who reject the politics of division!
