"A society that doesn't offer its members the chance to act selflessly... isn't a society in any tribal sense of the word; it's just a political entity that, lacking enemies, will probably fall apart on its own."
In our modern world when someone uses the word "tribal" it's typically used as a derogatory term accusing individuals or small groups of people of only thinking about themselves and refusing to be a part of the grander society as a whole. Sebastian Junger reminds us however, that being "tribal" may not only be a good thing but could be what helps us survive the modern era.
Is it healthy that we are becoming a more individualistic society? Today a person could go an entire day, week or even years mostly encountering complete strangers. This is a far cry from what it used to mean to be human, and because of this, there comes with it a deeply disturbing cost. As we lose our need for others, we also lose what keeps us alive in battle, what gives our sacrifices meaning, and what gives us our morality -- group pressure and community.
Today we live in a post-Emersonian, Nietzschean, cowboy society where the individual has come out on top. We love the man who can be his own individual, and stand up to the crowd -- but that doesn't mean we don't need the crowd, that we don't need to relate with one another. In fact one could argue, and Sabastian does, that we need now community more than ever. Our tribal past is calling to us and if we ignore it we ignore it at our own peril.
As Sebastian says: "We are not good to each other. Our tribalism is to an extremely narrow group of people: our children, our spouse, maybe our parents. Our society is alienating, technical, cold, and mystifying. Our fundamental desire, as human beings, is to be close to others, and our society does not allow for that."
But for Sebastian it's more than just rudeness, higher rates of depression, rising suicide rates, etc. It's also about what happens when we find ourselves in a society where we can take advantage of each other with no visible cost. When a group of people can cost American society several trillion dollars in losses -- roughly one-quarter of that years GDP - and not be tried for high crimes? When you can carelessly throw trash on the ground because you don't feel connected enough to the group around you, to the shared ethos of protecting something valuable?
These might seem like minor things, and we may be glad we live in a society that can withstand these kinds of blows... but blows they are. They are blows against our relatedness, our sense of sacrifice, and what we need to really survive and thrive -- to be human.
I could go on, but you should really just read the book yourself. It's a fantastic reminder of not only the importance of community but that it's a biologically fundamental need that we cannot ignore. "Belonging to a society requires sacrifice, and that sacrifice gives back way more than it costs. That sense of solidarity is at the core of what it means to be human and undoubtedly helped deliver us to this extraordinary moment in our history. It may also be the only thing that allows us to survive it."
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