@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Yes. But I'm more frightened by it than amazed. It's a level of tribal loyalty that is taking the US to very bad places.
The level of ideology based tribalism in America is alarming and a cause or effect of a very deep political divide that I don't see being bridged anytime soon. Of course it exists on both sides of the divide, and I would be truly amazed if you didn't acknowledge it to be so.
It also exists elsewhere in a world that is hardly the model of a Coca Cola commercial where everyone is singing together in harmony. In many places it is literally competing tribes and in others its religion based, but it's always an expression of a belief that the other tribe is a dangerous enemy, that their beliefs and actions are ruining life for the members of their tribe and can't possibly have any legitimate reason for believing or acting as they do.
I saw a particularly ugly incident of it at a dinner in London this week. A number of the people I regularly meet with voted Leave on Brexit and frankly it surprised me in some cases because the well educated, young, upwardly mobile Brit who works in The City and the financial sector was supposed to be the prime example of those who would vote Remain. In each case their vote was based on a desire to see their country break free of the rules and regulations imposed by faceless technocrats in Brussels. No one has ever explained that their vote was, to any extent, based on immigration, but I recognize that's not necessarily something they would want to share, particularly since the Remain side forcefully made the case that a vote to leave was a sure sign if racism and xenophobia. However when you've had several pints at a pub, people's guards sometime fall down a bit, and still no one expressed anti-immigration motivations for their vote.
During dinner, the subject of Brexit came up in the context of the possibility that some of the folks working in the financial sector might be required to move to continental Europe if the UK could not strike a deal with the EU before officially leaving. One fellow with whom I had never discussed the topic previously expressed that he was heartbroken over the UK leaving Europe. I understand the sentiments of those who wished to Remain and I certainly considered his to be sincere, but when he started to very harshly criticize Brits who voted to Leave, I felt the urge to defend colleagues who I knew voted thus but were hesitant to say anything because the fellow was one of their clients. I explained that while I didn't have a dog in the fight, I could well understand the motivation of Brits who voted to leave based on the issue of sovereignty, and that I hoped he wasn't saying that half of the population of his nation were fearful racist swine. It may have been the number of glasses of wine he consumed but he wasn't prepared to cut Leavers any slack and actually doubled down on his expressions of contempt. At one point one of the most junior members of the group said "Well, I voted to leave," and the fellow in question responded, without a trace of humor, "Well, you're a ******* idiot!" Immediately after this explosive insult, the conversation was awkwardly redirected to the football matches that were underway.
This, I think, was a good example of the political tribalism that exists throughout the world. As I said, I get why this fellow wanted the UK to remain and I don't think his reasons revealed any lack of patriotism or any other personal flaw that might be attributed to Remain voters, and yet he, very obviously, wasn't willing to credit the other tribe with having equally rational and defensible reasons for voting to leave. He felt Brexit to be a disaster for the UK (which it may or may not be), but his disappointment in the vote seemed to be less about financial considerations than history and culture. He kept harping on his perceived fact that the EU was created to keep Germany and France in check and from starting anymore world wars, and that that purpose was not obsolete. That this would likely be perceived by any French or German citizens that might have been listening to be offensive, didn't seem to register with him. In the end he had been deprived of something he greatly valued and it was the other tribe of ******* idiots who because of their ignorance and hatred had stolen it from him.
Obviously the same dynamic is at work in American society. Members of the Liberal/Democrat tribe despise the members of the Conservative/Republican tribe who deprived them of a president with a progressive agenda and gave them the monster Trump. In turn members of the latter tribe despise members of the former for depriving them of certain traditional values and institutions. It is no longer enough to assume that people with whom you disagree are simply wrong, now they are members of a tribe, the whole of which are ******* idiots and evil to boot.
The history of tribalism is not one of harmonious relations. For ages, tribes have competed for limited resources and that competition has led to conflict more than cooperation. As with any very serious conflict our instincts seem to be to view the opposition as the enemy and the enemy as, in some way, inferior to us, and not deserving of equal consideration as humans. It is a very dangerous dynamic, but I see it strengthening, not dissipating.
