From Tribalism to Humanism

In the distant past, human beings lived a primitive lifestyle. Dwelling in caves and jungles, they hunted to survive. Since resources were limited, they were vulnerable to malnutrition and starvation, or to sudden death from natural disasters or attacks by wild animals. For their survival and growth they lived in small tribes whose members protected each other. While the men hunted with their arrows and spears, their women looked after the children and animals. Such a lifestyle created an us / them tribal mentality. Each tribe saw other tribes as potential enemies who would attack them and steal their women, children and animals. To protect their limited resources they were always ready for tribal wars.
Killing members of another tribe could start a tribal war that continued for generations in which innocent men, women and children were killed for revenge. Sometimes the goal was not only to kill but also to humiliate. Rather than dispatching their enemies quickly, they would torture their enemies so that they died a painful humiliating death.

In the last few thousand years human beings have made progress in many aspects of life but in other areas they are still very primitive in their thinking and attitudes. In the 21st century human beings may live in skyscrapers in huge cities, travel in cars, trains and planes, and communicate around the planet by telephone and internet, as members of a world-wide global village. But many human beings have neither evolved in their minds nor grown in their personalities. They still have a tribal mentality—all that has changed is the definition of the tribe and the nature of tribal war.

To understand the dynamics of modern tribal wars we need to understand the psychology of the tribal mental set. How does such a war start and how is the cycle of violence begun and maintained?
Analysis of such wars shows that they can be started by a person, a group, an organization or an institution. The details differ but there are some common characteristics in such people, organizations and institutions.

The person who starts the modern tribal war
…feels threatened, insecure or vulnerable or identifies with a bereaved party
…emotionally identifies with a tribe, a herd, a group
…gets into an us / them mental set and perceives the other as an enemy
…attacks the enemy to take revenge or prevent future attacks
If the opponent has a similar tribal mental set, the tribal war and the cycle of violence begins and may continue for days, weeks, months, years, decades, generations, or even centuries.

A cycle of violence and tribal war can take place between two ordinary people and their families, or two heads of states, or two leaders of organizations or institutions who perceive each other as enemies or potential enemies.

Such an us / them division can be triggered on the basis of:
Religion…Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus
Sects…Shiites and Sunnis in Muslims, Catholics and Protestants in Christians.

Race…Blacks and Whites
Gender…Men and Women
Language…French and English, Urdu and Bengali
Sexual Orientation…Gays and Straights
Nationality…Indians and Pakistanis, Americans and Iraqis

As the war continues both enemies pass on their tribal mental set to the next generation who, once brainwashed, join the tribal war started by their elders and previous generations. It is sad and tragic to see that when the cycle of violence continues and tribal war is maintained, people on both sides start identifying with the opponent to acquire the psychological profile of the enemy. They begin to mirror each other’s personality and political strategy in order to fight fire with fire. An example is President George W. Bush—the longer he continues his war with Osama bin Laden, the more like him he acts.

Compared to those with a tribal mental set, people who are emotionally, socially and culturally evolved have acquired a Humanistic mental set and developed a Humanistic Personality. For such people, their primary identity is that of human being. They might have other identities based on religion, race, language, gender, sexual orientation or nationality, but those identities remain secondary, and whenever there is a conflict between primary and secondary identities, they think, feel and act according to the primary identity. This Humanistic philosophy and personality helps them maintain a rational and cooperative rather than irrational and confrontative attitude towards life. It enables them to transcend the us / them mentality and encourages them to resolve conflicts with people from other social and cultural backgrounds. They focus more on similarities than differences. Their philosophy creates a peaceful lifestyle at a personal and social level rather than involvement in war at a political level.

It is unfortunate that even in the 21st century many of us still have a primitive tribal person sleeping in our unconscious mind and when we feel threatened and vulnerable the sleeping tribal person wakes up and joins the tribe emotionally, socially and politically to fight a tribal war.

On the evening news we see multiple examples of tribal wars fought on religious grounds, such as the conflict between Christians and Muslims when Pope Benedict criticized Muslims, and on political and economic grounds between Americans and Iraqis because of the holy oil. Be they American soldiers or Iraqi guerrilla warriors, they rationalize killing thousands of innocent men, women and children on the basis of tribe against tribe. At an international level, economic wars are being waged as colonial powers loot the resources of poor and vulnerable countries. Some of the latter, although weak and starving, are trying to create nuclear weapons to protect themselves against contemporary pre-emptive tribal wars.

As we become more aware of our unconscious tribal mentality and consciously adopt a humanistic philosophy, we will be able to rise above our differences, resolve our conflicts at a personal, social and political level and learn to live with each other harmoniously and peacefully. Loving one’s neighbor has been a part of folk wisdom for centuries—we just need to broaden the definition of neighbor and include all races in the human race and all tribes in the human tribe, as we are now, more than ever, living in a global village. We need to help our children to develop the primary identity of human beings and rise above the tribal mentality based on race, colour, language, gender, nationalism and religion. Those identities, which unite their members at a small, self-protective sub-group level, divide us as members of the global human family.

Given the arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, we are quite capable of committing collective suicide if we do not accept the philosophy of humanism. Such a philosophy will help us become fully human individually and collectively. Every human being has to do some introspection and rise above the tribal mentality to embrace all of humanity.

A few years ago I wrote a poem reflecting my humanistic philosophy which is as follows:

WE ARE ALL CHILDREN OF MOTHER EARTH

When will we realize?
We are all children of Adam and Eve
Our enemies are our distant cousins
Alienated by ethnic and religious walls
Separated by linguistic and national borders
Divided by the history of Holy Wars
When will be become aware?
We all belong to the same race
The same tribe
The same family
The Human family
We all share
The same moon
The same sun
The same mountains
The same valleys
The same deserts
The same jungles
The same winds
The same oceans
When will we recognize?
We are all children of Mother Earth