Demonising Tribalism in Others, While Indulging Our Own

Donald Trump’s Demand for Love

By Frank Bruni, Nov. 22 2016 (LINK to article)

"Donald Trump’s Demand for Love"

Don't we ALL want to be loved?

Of course we do, but we need to clarify what it means, in this context, which we can only do from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.

We are an inherently tribal animal, who craves the approval of his or her tribe. Only, our original tribes are long gone, their place now filled by substitute tribes, the most important of which is, of course, the state.

The state conflates and confounds very different aspects of the original tribal environment in which human nature evolved, long before the first states and civilisations emerged from it, with the modern "nation state" now deceitfully posing as our tribe or nation (intra- and inter-tribal environment) itself, while at the same time facilitating society’s SELF-exploitation (as an extra-tribal environment, on a par with the natural environment) to the personal advantage of its ruling elites and favoured (especially wealthy and academic/formerly priestly) clients, at the expense of society at large.

Academics have failed to recognise this, because they are themselves privileged clients and employees of the state, with a massive personal self-interest in rationalising and defending its role, self-image (as our "nation") and ideologies (social, political, economic and racial, formerly religious), on which the state bases its claim to moral and knowledgeable authority: http://philosopherkin.blogspot.co.uk

2nd comment

I've just submitted a comment in which I argue that we ALL crave to be loved, not by anyone, but by members, especially high status members, our own tribe, being the inherently and intensely tribal animal that we are.

The problem is that our original tribes are long gone and members of the same society identify with different substitute tribes with varying degrees of overlap.

Most citizens of a state identify with it as their nation, because that is what we have been taught for centuries to do, but with increasing DIVERSITY there is an increasing divergence between how different groups and individuals perceive this nation.

America's liberal left have a very different understanding of America than conservatives, especially the Alt Right, which they demonise as a consequence.

The liberal left form an ideological, "progressive", tribe of their own, whose values and perceptions are increasingly out of touch with much of the rest of America, as Donald Trump's election win demonstrates.

The only way to deal with this is not by demonising other tribes, but by developing an understanding of them, and of one's own tribe(s), in the context of human tribal nature and how it is manipulated and exploited by the state, for its own purposes, as well as by capital for commercial purposes, branding being the most conspicuous example.