Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Tribal by Nature: For Better or Worse

For as long as human beings have inhabited this big blue marble in space, there has been a deep burning desire to belong. We desire to be part of families, groups or teams. We are obsessed with finding others who share our beliefs, interests, vocations and passions. Anthropologists and sociologists around the world have proven that we are tribal by nature. 

We sometimes take it for granted and simply don’t realize how many tribes we either intentionally or unintentionally find ourselves as members. Political and religious affiliations, ethnic groups, nationalities, interest groups and social networks. Sometimes it can be benign, like whether you like classical music or heavy metal. At other times it can be downright nasty, like which Premier League soccer team you root for can get you beaten up at a match.  

Steve Knight of the Be Human Project, recently wrote an article entitled, “Are Humans Naturally Tribal?”  In it he writes, “At our core, we humans are tribal. Constantly, our subconscious is bombarded with cues that identify who is ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Perceived similarities of status and values make it much more likely that we will connect and form lasting bonds with our fellows.” 

Knight talks about how author Bill Bishop’s 2008 book, “The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart,” provides the data that shows how the significant increase in tribal-like clustering and social networks makes it “less and less likely that we’ll encounter, much less consider views that are different from our own.” Ain’t that the truth. We see this happening more and more, given the one-sided views of the national media and the influence of social media. We can intentionally associate almost exclusively with those who are like-minded. Sometimes for the good, but often at the detriment of the greater good.

According to their website, The Be Human Project “emboldens leaders to experiment with human-centered practices that will allow them to make their businesses more human, resulting in a culture of human-centered organizations.” Passes the common sense test in my book. If only it were that easy.

Think about all the different tribes to which you belong. You might be a die-hard New York Yankees fan at a synagogue or church peacefully worshiping beside a Boston Red Sox fan.  You could be a hard-core Republican working next to a lifelong Democrat helping to build a home for Habitat for Humanity. Most of the time, people can handle their tribal differences with occasional sarcasm or good-natured ribbing. But more and more we seem to be taking our tribal differences to extremes and the outcomes can be downright frightening.

Let’s take a subject that most of us in Happy Valley hold near and dear to our hearts. That would be an affiliation in some way with The Pennsylvania State University tribe. We are a collection of well over a million living souls who either currently attend (90,000+), attended (over 700,000 living alumni), or feel closely affiliated in some way as a grandparent, parent, sibling, friend, business associate or fan.

We can go anywhere in the world and when we hear “We are!” we will instantly respond “Penn State!” That tribal bond is real, and we can find ourselves cheering uncontrollably at times for our favorite sports team right alongside someone that we might never otherwise have much in common.

How about the impact of geography on the tribes we identify with simply based on where we were raised? I am a “Yinzer,” having spent my formative years in the East Liberty neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh before moving to the east suburb of Penn Hills. So, I grew up a part of the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates tribes. Heck I even rooted for Pitt as a kid!  Further proof that we can change.

I prefer Primanti Brothers’ sandwiches while my Philadelphia friends might choose a cheesesteak from one of the City of Brotherly Love’s many popular joints. You can actually find yourself in the midst of a pretty nasty argument between Philadelphia natives depending on which cheesesteak tribe they are a member of. But the Philadelphians may quickly forget their cheesesteak allegiance and band together to defend Wawa’s if I bring up Sheetz. Soda or pop? Let’s not even go there.

So, let’s do an exercise to see which tribes you consider yourself to be a member? Seriously, sit down and write out as many groups and interests that align with your way of thinking and your tastes, whether it’s music, food, geographic preferences, and even those hard to discuss affiliations such as politics or religion.

For example, I belong to the beer over wine tribe and the beer tribe that prefers Guinness. The seafood over steak tribe and the un-cola over cola tribe. But I am with the Pepsi tribe over the Coke tribe if my options are limited. Here’s a big one in my household: I choose vanilla over chocolate. In fact, every year my wife asks what kind of cake I’d like for my birthday. I request vanilla cake with vanilla icing and every year I get “death by chocolate.” Now don’t get me wrong, because I still love chocolate, but I prefer vanilla. Just once I would like to get that vanilla cake with French vanilla ice cream on my birthday.

Think about your own tribal persuasions. Extrovert or introvert? Symphony or rock concert? Fútbol or football? Democratic, Green, Independent, Libertarian, Republican or another party? Religious or secular? Globalist or nationalist? Yikes, now we are testing more difficult waters, eh?

Speaking of American football, you know that sitting in Beaver Stadium during a “Whiteout” evokes raw emotions and the noise puts the fear of God in our opponents. For the time that you are in the stadium you are not a freshman or a senior, an international student or an in-state student, a liberal arts major or an engineering major. While you are in that sea of white shirts, you are a Nittany Lion. Period. During the four hours that you are sitting in that stadium you are one people; you belong to the tribe known affectionately as the Nittany Nation. On game days it doesn’t matter what your race, gender, politics, etc. are, you are one with those who wear the same colors and cheer for the same team. 

On a more serious note, perhaps we can agree that we simply belong to different groups for different issues and that our allegiance can and will shift over time. Perhaps there is hope that we can set aside our differences and can show common courtesy and mutual respect and compromise for the greater good. A win-win solution is OK after all. 

Our tribal roots tend to run deep. Many times, they run too deep. They blind us to opening our hearts and minds to find common ground. Tolerance is a two-way street and in these divided times it is too often a person craving tolerance and understanding that gives neither.

Alas we are at times so easily distracted when the stakes are high, or a decision requires tremendous courage, that we go back to our comfortable place in our own tribes.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all remembered we are first and foremost members of the tribe of human beings? To be a part of the tribe of people who care about others. The tribe that is for the better, not the worse.