This talk by Seth Godin makes an interesting follow-up to The Tribal Exemption, my post on the dark side of tribal groupings in every area from the arts to law enforcement, namely the tendency to support your own members regardless of what horrible actions they may commit.
I've got some major problems with this whole talk, from the "people join tribes because they want to change the world" canard (for the well-off maybe, for the rest of us it's survival and support) to the reduction of any form of communication to marketing speak to the confusion of basic persuasion and group behavior with tribalism (no, it's a little more narrow than that).
Godin seems to be associating emerging "tribes" primarily with middle- and upper-class social causes (though he does flash a picture of the Sopranos), with a few innovative entrepreneurs thrown in for good measure. Down the food chain a long ways, think of gangs — everyone from the Mafia and outlaw MCs to the Crips and Bloods — as tribes. A group that feels threatened bands together for fellowship, protection and the increase of their own power. Their stories reveal, in a way that Godin's doesn't that the core tenet of tribes tends to be their allegiance to one another, right or wrong.
So I wish Godin had delved, just a bit, into some of the ominous implications of phrases like "it's not for everyone" and "the true believers."
Still, this talk has a number of interesting points and is worth posting as counterpoint to some of my own concerns.
Where I think he's dead-on is in the increased ability of technology to allow the creation of dispersed tribal groups based around similar interests or beliefs. Interestingly, cutting edge media has revived one of the oldest social forms (provocation thought: religions were ahead of the curve here, and began nigh-global tribes way before current tech).
Also, and most importantly, Godin, in a particularly eloquent moment, does get the key reason these tribes are becoming a more important force: people want to be missed.
People want such a thing because it is a Breaking Time: the old loyalties of nation-state and family don't seem to offer the same support or meaning to people they once did. In a way the increasing prominence of tribe (which has always existed) is due to people looking to fill that gap.
Interestingly, the more tribes form, the more Godin's dreams about leading movements becomes quite difficult: members of existing tribes often turn inwards and seek only loose alliances with others. Contra Godin, established tribal structures have historically been extremely resistant to change and extremely defensive of tradition.
Despite all my qualms and its many ugly aspects, the tribal resurgence can fill a useful function. If it's a part of a person's identity, but not the only part and If it's a social force, balanced by others, then it can become a viable institution, curbing against the extremes of local loyalties while offering people a vital support structure that doesn't depend on a central authority. It's a big "if," but it might work.
Comments