This just in: If I had to pick a single issue that is damaging us as individuals, as a country, or as a world, it would not be wars or pollution, or the economy. It would be tribalism.

Tribalism is the root of all fear, of all conflict and of all hate.

Tribalism refers to belonging to a group. I am American. I am white. I am male. These are all examples of groups that I belong to. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with this.

I grew up in Wasco, Ca, a small town of about 7,500 people. This town had two elementary schools; Carl Clemons and Palm Avenue. For some reason, we kids at Palm Avenue viewed the kids from Carl Clemons, most of whom we’d never met, as “from the wrong side of the tracks.” They were inferior. They were poor. They we not as good as us. I don’t recall being taught this but the rivalry was real.

There was only one middle school so in 6th grade when I was 12, the two groups merged into one. I was surprised to find that the other kids were just like me. There were no differences. After a few weeks of school, who came from which elementary school was unimportant and often forgotten.

Then came high school. Our rivals were the nearest small town which happened to be Shafter. We viewed them in much the same way as I viewed Carl Clemons. We even had a Shafter Day where everyone would dress up as poor people, pretending, once again, the “others we not our equal.”

College was a little different. I went to the Naval Academy where our rival was the Military Academy at West Point. All day long, you could hear the freshmen, Plebes, shouting, “Go Navy. Beat Army.” We always knew the number of days until the Big Army-Navy game. However, at the end of the game, both teams came together as one. We knew the rivalry was fun but we also knew we were all on the same team.

Rivalries are fun. They gives us a reason to watch the game; to cheer for one team over another. But they are just for fun.

Unless, you forget that they are not…just for fun.

As adults, if we are not careful, we will fall into the Tribalism Trap. And, it’s not like there is just one trap. White tribes against non-white tribes. Asians against Europeans. This religion against that other on. Republicans against Democrats.

None of these tribes are real beyond the space we give them in our heads. When people of different tribes intermingle, the boundaries go away. We find out that the “others” are not evil or less worthy. We become one.

What put this topic in my head was the recent election for a senator in Georgia. Hershel Walker was possibly the most unqualified candidate for any national office. Moral, intellectually, experientially, on every measure one could think of, he was grossly unfit. Yet, he got nearly half of the state to vote for him. Why? He belonged to the Republican tribe. Had he been in the Democrat tribe, we would have seen the same thing happen.

If we want to get along. If we want to solve issues like racism, poverty, or immigration, we will need to all get on the same team.

Tribalism prevents that from happening.

What to do about this? I don’t know. I can only work on myself and that is a full-time job.

But, I think it’s important to notice.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim

This just in: As the Republican Party becomes more and more unhinged, they are starting to remind me of children at play.

Remember when we were kids and used to play like we were adults? We’d watch the “big people” and then pretend that we were them. We tried to copy them without really understanding why they acted like they did. After all, we were children.

Let’s look at a few examples. Remember, these are people “playing” like they think adults act.

Republicans run for office saying, “Biden raised your gas prices!” Their playmates clap wildly, pretending to understand the economics of a free economy. They also pretend that since their Party Officials noticed high gas prices, that is all it takes to fix the problem. The children then go and vote for their Republican heros.

In response…The elected pretend adults announce their top priority for when they take office: Investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop.

This gets repeated over an over again. High inflation, the war in Ukraine, immigrants at the border. In all of these instances, the problem is pointed out, the other children clap and then vote as if their party can fix something.

The response is always the same in the end…Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Why, you may ask, is Hunter Biden’s laptop so important?

No one really knows. Remember, these are children we are talking about. They saw investigations into Trump for any number of things ranging from asking Ukraine for a bribe to hording top secret documents in a tool shed to election interference to sedition on January 6th. They saw this and decided that this was how adults act. The underlying cause of the investigations didn’t appear to be important to them. The Republican take-away from all of the Trump investigations is that this is what the party does when its in power.

Republicans cherry pick problems and then tell you, “look at what we noticed”. This make people vote for them.

Republicans support election interference and they project these actions onto they other party and people vote for them.

Republican accuse Democrats of doing a lot of things that only the Republicans do. Check out this partial list of Republican pedophilia.

Republicans vote for someone because when he was in college he played football and they remember his name.

I can’t make this stuff up.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim