TRIBALISM

Birds of a feather tend to flock together.

Humans tend to be tribal, to discriminate on the basis of nationality, class, gender, race, politics and religion. Insiders are those who look, act and believe as we do. Outsiders are those who don't look, act and believe as we do. There are good, bad and ugly consequences of a tribal approach to life.

GOOD

Everyone benefits when tribalism is based on kinship, a united love of what everyone has in common. Birds of a feather flock together. Why? Because you are more likely to survive in a group than by yourself. There's safety in numbers. Natural selection favored those who cooperated with others. In that sense, we can say that evolution established a genetic basis for right and wrong, good and bad, success and failure. If you're attacked by a lion, your buddy's spear might save your life. If someone from another tribe is trying to steal your sheep, your tribe will help you stop the thief. If you're running low on tomatoes or coffee or toilet paper, you can trade (not steal) something you have for something someone in your tribe has.

Everyone benefits when tribalism is based on a united love of their country. In World War II, for example, patriotism brought people of diverse cultural and religious "tribes" together to stop the German invasion. Love of country trumped love of tribe. If Earth were attacked by aliens from another planet, the nations of the world would come together to blow the ugly, green little critters off our planet. Love of Earth would trump love of country and tribe.

BAD

Everyone loses when tribalism is based on partisanship, a sectarian love for US and schismatic hatred for THEM. In World War II Hitler twisted patriotism (love of country) and ethnic pride (love of the Arian race) into nationalism (Deutschland Uber Alles!) and racism (Arians the Master Race!) genocide (hatred of Jews).

Now, in the 21st century, the partisan THEM versus US politics of the Democrats and Republicans has created the same tribal and divisive effects here in America. The divisiveness isn't the result of differing religious beliefs. It's the result of conservative and liberal people treating their political identity as if it's a religious identity. The political divide is now more like the sectarian, schismatic divides that have historically separated religious sects such as Sunni from Shia or Protestant from Catholic. People see the other side as an existential threat; they re not just wrong—they're evil. The first Americans were a mix of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. Each tended to identify more strongly with their "tribe" than as Americans. The Constitution helped to unite this diverse mix of people and cultures into a nation bound by common beliefs and principles. Today's partisanship has turned Americans against one another and the principles in our founding document. The result has polarized political identity into mutually exclusive positions where any attempt to compromise their position for the greater good of all concerned is apostasy. Both sides use their animosity toward, and their competition with, the other side to violate the law, disrupt civilized behavior, thwart common sense and destroy our American way of life.

Presidents use his executive powers to initiate dictator-like regulations that violate the Constitution, common sense and individual rights. Socialistic organizations who fund and support the elimination of law enforcement and initiate riots. Election officials and personnel who violate the laws, regulations and procedures that ensure fair elections. Bureaucrats in the deep state go along with the gerrymandering of election laws, illegal legislation, riots and death. District attorney's are letting criminals go free without fines or jail time. Laws are passed that make it okay to steal anything as long as isn't more than $1,000. Senators who think it's okay to steal things if you really need it. Anarchy isn't just around the corner. It's already arrived and is reeking havoc with everyday life of people trying to keep a roof over their heads and beans on their tables.

UGLY

Tribalism can distort and polarize the difference between people. Misogyny, prejudice against women, is a distortion of the difference between men and women. The word is coined from misos, the Greek word for hatred, and gune, the Greek word for woman. Misogyny is the mindset of an arrogant, philandering savage. Phylogeny is the existential, responsible mindset of a civilized human being who takes a mature, realistic position between those extremes because he understands that very few things are a binary black or white, good or bad, this or that. Life is AND, not OR.

History is replete with the tendency for some men and some cultures to treat women as chattel because those men and those cultures believe that women are physically and mentally inferior to men. Treating women as chattel, a thing rather than a person, almost always results in physical and sexual abuse, psychological suffering and a much lower economic and social status than men. Women in the United States, for example, weren't allowed to vote until the early 20th century.

A friend of mine left Iraq and abandoned the Islamic religion because she became frightened and disgusted with violence and prejudice against women. She gave me a video of a Muslim man crossing the street to beat a woman with a stick because she had not properly covered her face. Misogyny is an example of how a tribalistic mindset can polarize differences into opposite, mutually exclusive positions—especially if a bible justifies that extreme position and supports a god's approval of the consequences. My ex-Muslim friend told me that the Quran supports the mandate to kill Infidels. Her Islam cousin was sent to America to kill her after she left Iraq and the Islamic religion. He didn't succeed but her status as an Infidel keeps her in a precarious position. Just another example of the ugly ways in which tribalism can distort and polarize the difference between systems of belief. Do you really need a god or a bible to tell you what is good, bad or ugly?