Perhaps I’m falling prey to confirmation bias (When our beliefs are challenged by some of the facts, we emphasize the value of the data that support our belief, and ignore data that disagree.) but I was riveted by writer Adam Gopnik’s interview on CBC last week. Human psychological aberrations aside, it’s very pleasant for me to hear a well-known and respected journalist state on national television what I’ve been saying for the past couple of years. Climbing out of tribalism is the next, most progressive step in improving human interactions, and in this area the American people are far behind the rest of the developed world.
What Is a Tribe?
A tribe is formed by a group of similar people who are faced with a dangerous environment and band together to protect themselves. As such, the tribe is inward-turning, seeking solace in their small group, and seeing danger in anyone or anything different. In the natural progression of human society, as our groups get stronger and larger the danger disappears, and the fear that causes the aggression to the outside world subsides as well.
On the other side of the coin, however, are leaders that understand how a population kept in fear can be emotionally stirred by the old tribal instincts to be antagonistic to outsiders. The leader who can find an outside threat to point everyone’s fear towards, and then paint the image of “saviour and protector” on his own face, can stay in power. Gopnik notes that Trump has no conscience and no normal human empathy, so what he actually believes is difficult to pin down, and has no importance in the long run. “All he understands is domination in a very tribal way.”
Nothing has changed since the days of the schoolyard bully. Find a fat kid with a geeky haircut, antagonize him until he reacts aggressively, then run to the authorities pointing your finger. In the face of this danger, the tribe will rally around you and ignore any minor flaws in your own personality. If they’re really afraid, they won’t notice that you caused the danger in the first place.
America’s Historical Roots
The Americans have a problem. They are a country conceived in revolution and developed in antagonism to the outside world. To protect themselves, they have defined their tribe as American. But there are many people inside this huge tribe who believe differently. It is necessary to label those people as “un-American,” so they can be placed outside the tribe and hated. House Committee on Un-American Activities of the McCarthy era is the best-known official example of this tribal social tendency.
This “us-against-them” attitude pervades their society. Everything is seen in terms of black and white: our tribe against theirs. People identify themselves by what party they belong to. Ask a Canadian to describe himself, and he’ll probably start with his occupation. Ask an American, and he’ll likely start with his political party.
It is Gopnik’s observation that this creates an aberration in the political process. When a person’s self image is tied up in his politics, he does not make decisions on the basis of logic, but on emotions. And the more emotional (i.e. fearful) the voter is, the less rational his choices will be. When everyone is under the threat of expulsion from the tribe, all are fearful.
So, for example, when Wendy Mesley asked Gopnik why the belief in man-made climate change is such a problem for the Republicans, you might expect the usual answer that American industry needs to destroy the environment in order to compete with the rest of the world. But what does Gopnik answer? “Because Al Gore believes in it.”
By this he means that when tribalism becomes that ensconced in the voter’s emotions, then confounding your enemy becomes more important than protecting your own children.
White supremacy, racial prejudice, and all those other anti-social impulses are the result of tribalism. When people find their personal identity threatened, they respond in a very tribal way. To paraphrase Gopnik, “They hate liberals so much more than they love their own principles that it warps their judgement. When your politics become more part of your identity than part of your ideas, then disasters like this happen.” Issues become tribalized, and it is impossible to discuss them on a rational basis.
The Journalist as Outsider
Gopnik sees himself as an outsider. Of American birth but raised in Montreal, he returned to New York with a refreshing outside view of America. And where there are tribal problems, the outside view is necessary. If you are part of the tribe to the level that your self image is tied to that tribe, you cannot listen to any discussion without taking sides, at which point the emotions interfere, and all the rationalization “skills” like confirmation bias take over. Only the outsider can remain rational and keep the thought processes in the logical part of the brain.
Unfortunately, in the United States the rational judgement that most impartial observers have made comes down solidly against one side of the argument. This isn’t going to help progress in easing the fears of the tribal Americans or in bringing them closer to modern civilization.
But Gopnik does not completely support the left’s actions, either. He notes that the present situation comes as a reaction to a time of great social change, culminating in the election of Obama. In a similar way, the great changes of the Sixties resulted in a rebound to Nixon and Reagan. He does not state it, but I draw the inference that the forces of progress may have made the necessary changes to the laws, but they did not make a similar effort to draw the fearful and the tribal along with them. How much tribalism are Trump’s detractors showing? Hence the present mess, which only both sides can solve by setting aside their tribalism and getting along like real Americans.