Thursday, May 26, 2011

Tribalism and protecting the tribe


If there is one common problem in just about every nation it is one tribe trying to keep their country for their tribe. It seems that people love to belong to a tribe like a religion, race or ethnic group what we all want is to belong and protect their tribe against those who we perceive want to harm our tribe, real or a managed. Mao tried to protect China against foreign influences as did Japan until Admiral Perry opened Japan to the world. Europe have had centuries of wars with one group protecting what they believe is theirs against another tribe, Russian want to keep foreigners out of Russia, The German and French see Muslims moving in from North Africa as well as workers from Eastern Europe as a threat to their tribes .   Tribal massacres in Africa in recent year have been the worst if under reported examples like Rwanda, Kenya, the Congo, Darfur, and in the Union of South Africa. North America has brought together many different tribes both in Canada and the United States both have had their troubles first against the native Americans then again any new or just different races or ethnic groups the latest against Spanish speaking people from Mexico and points south and the Muslims all have been the recent targets as we yell “take back America” from that tribe that is different from us.
          My question is given all this is it in the inherit nature of humans or a learned cultural custom that can be transferred to belonging the whole human race and protect it against ourselves?