MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-05-12 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Tribalism - from a real hero of tolerance and
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nypost.com
I saw tribalism rip a country apart — and now it's happening in America
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
9-12 minutes
About a decade ago, when I worked for the American Enterprise Institute,
I had to force myself to go to lunch with a friend. I dreaded the
meeting because I knew that she was going to try to convince me to leave
my job. AEI is a pro-business, conservative-leaning think tank in
Washington, DC. My friend was an enthusiastic liberal.
After I had run out of excuses, the day arrived and, predictably, after
a few minutes of the usual small talk, my friend launched into a tirade
about the Iraq War, which several of my colleagues strongly supported.
“You don’t belong there, Ayaan,” she said.
I remember trying to steer the conversation on to actual policies. I had
voted for supporting the American coalition in Iraq when I was a Member
of Parliament in the Netherlands — and I started to explain why.
But she wasn’t interested in a rational discussion. She interrupted me
mid-sentence, launching into a monologue about John Bolton, the former
ambassador to the United Nations and a fellow at AEI (and subsequently
national security adviser to President Donald Trump). Bolton, my friend
insisted, was a loathsome, hateful, racist, neo-conservative warmonger.
The list went on and on until eventually she said that he looked like a
walrus with a mustache. You could tell by his physiognomy, she
explained, that he was a psychopath.
“But what about the policies?” I responded, trying to redirect the
conversation away from personalities. The more she spoke, the more I
recognized her broad disposition as something I had experienced earlier
in my life. Her attitude was almost entirely tribal. Two things in
particular stood out: an almost blind hatred of a particular group
(Republicans), and secondly, the use of deeply personal attacks on
individual researchers to justify that hatred.
A picture taken on October 15, 2017 shows a general view of the scene of
the explosion of a truck bomb in the centre of Mogadishu, Somalia.
The scene of a truck bomb explosion in the center of Mogadishu, Somalia,
on October 15, 2017.
MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP via Getty Images
Today, 10 years later, this attitude seems to be the prevailing norm.
Numerous studies support the hypothesis that American life — not just
politics, but life in general — has become deeply polarized. The deeply
divided society we now live in increasingly reminds me of clan or tribal
behavior in Africa.
In Somalia, where I was born, my mother was blindly loyal to our clan.
So much so that, apparently, she claimed she could detect the malicious
intentions of an individual from a different clan just by the structure
of his forehead. She would, for example, often warn my father that
someone was trying to take advantage of him, purely by the way he frowned.
In “Culture and Conflict in the Middle East,” anthropologist Philip Carl
Salzman recounts meeting tribesmen in Baluchistan. What, they had asked
Salzman, would he do if he faced a real danger in his home country?
Well, Salzman replied, he would call the police. The tribesmen roared
with laughter, then looked at him pityingly: “Oh no, no, no, they said:
only your ‘lineage mates’ will help you.”
Smoke rises in the horizon above the Towfiq neighborhood in Mogadishu
amid fighting between Ethiopian troops and insurgents on March 29, 2007.
Smoke rises in the horizon above the Towfiq neighborhood in Mogadishu
amid fighting between Ethiopian troops and insurgents on March 29, 2007.
MUSTAFA ABDI/AFP/GettyImages
In tribal communities, neutral institutions of civil society that
Westerners take for granted — such as the police, impartial courts, and
the rule of law — simply do not, and cannot, exist. In such societies,
everything is tribalized, and the task of building civic institutions is
laden with difficulties.
In Somalia, I was taught to be suspicious of anyone from a different
clan, to always think harm was coming my way and to be guarded against
anyone that was “other.” I come from the Darod clan, and was taught to
constantly listen to accents, examine face shapes and overanalyze all
non-verbal cues, searching for any indications of a different tribe. I
can still identify a Somali (and usually their clan) from across a room.
We were captives of an echo chamber, hearing constantly of the evils of
the neighboring Hawiye clan. We were taught from a young age that the
Hawiye were coming to rape, rob, and destroy us. In response, we amassed
weapons, hoarded food and exhorted young men (as young as 12) to join
the military. The looming threat of the Hawiye was so great that my
mother eventually sent my sister and me abroad.
US National Guard soldiers guard the grounds of the US Capitol from
behind a security fence in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2021, days
after the Capitol was breached.
US National Guard soldiers guard the grounds of the US Capitol from
behind a security fence in Washington, DC, on January 9, 2021, days
after the Capitol was breached.
DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images
In the end, because of such protracted tribal tensions, Somalia
collapsed into civil war. Every attempt at mediation proved incapable of
handling the deep-seated mistrust and hatred that accumulated by each
clan over the years; tribal elders, reluctant to compromise, could not
de-escalate the situation. With such high levels of distrust, the
conflict spiraled into bloodshed.
While such violence has yet to seize America, all the tribalist
ingredients are present. There is a blind commitment to one party or the
other; emotions are running high; there is a lack of trust in civic
institutions. If such tribalism isn’t overcome, it’s only a matter of
time before the situation escalates.
Some of this has its absurd side: for instance, the strange ways that
public health measures such as mask-wearing and vaccination have become
politicized, to the point that I know of fully vaccinated people in
California who say they will continue to wear masks for fear of being
mistaken for Republicans. Bizarre? Of course. But it is also symptomatic
of a dangerous trend toward tribalism.
We are, I fear, close to the precipice of serious destabilization. Many
American cities are either militarized (Washington, DC), near a social
boiling point (Minneapolis), or have capitulated to anarchist protests
and pressures (Portland, Seattle). These tribal quirks run deep on both
sides of the aisle. Many Republicans continue to dispute the legitimacy
of the result of the last presidential election; while on the left, the
woke are eroding the Democratic Party from the inside, as identity
politics displace universalist aspirations. Some citizens are viewed as
part of oppressive groups, some as part of oppressed groups. A person’s
individual actions can generally do little to change the immutable
characteristics of the tribe to which they belong.
Federal police confront protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield
federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another
night of unrest on July 26, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.
Federal police confront protesters in front of the Mark O. Hatfield
federal courthouse in downtown Portland as the city experiences another
night of unrest on July 26, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Just as I noticed with my friend over lunch, there is frequently a
visceral hostility towards anyone who leans even slightly toward the
right. Today, especially in academia, those who don’t conform with the
“progressive” narrative, no matter how ethical they might be as
individuals, are vilified as racists, white supremacists, homophobes or
transphobes. Individuals can be attacked, canceled, disinvited or even
fired for the tiniest of verbal transgressions.
This kind of intolerance has for some time been apparent in high
schools, too. Another friend of mine has a daughter who attends a
private school outside of San Francisco. Last year, when it was revealed
that she had expressed mild support for President Trump, she was pushed
down the stairs by a fellow pupil.
It was a horrifying and, one hopes, rare incident. And yet there is
something very striking about tribalism: It is a basic human trait, like
skin color or gender. However, despite being the natural state of being
for many humans, it is not a positive or helpful trait, particularly in
modern times. Tribalism developed as an imperfect social survival
mechanism in the early stages of human civilization. But in modern
times, it can lead to social disintegration and severe violence between
groups.
A protester flies an American flag while walking through tear gas fired
by federal officers during a protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield
U.S. Courthouse on July 21, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.
A protester carries an American flag while walking through tear gas
fired by federal officers during a protest in front of the Mark O.
Hatfield US Courthouse on July 21, 2020 in Portland, Oregon.
Nathan Howard/Getty Images
The beautiful story of America, the reason so many people around the
world still yearn to come here, is to a large extent founded on our
rejection of tribalism and our establishment of civic, neutral
institutions, based on the fundamental principle of equality before the
law. These institutions are imperfect, of course, but they are far
superior to the tribalism that rules other parts of the world. Our
overcoming of such a natural urge is an accomplishment.
As “woke” politics strengthens its grasp on our institutions — extending
beyond the educational system into the media and now many corporations —
that accomplishment is being eroded. The presumption of innocence, the
commitment to blind justice and the whole notion of due process are all
falling victim to spurious notions of “equity” and “anti-racism” — both
of which carry within them an implicit intention to discriminate on
racial lines.
If we continue to slip down this path, the thirst for tribalism will be
unquenchable. That’s why moderate liberals need to stand up to the
destructive forces that are taking over the Democratic Party, just as
moderate conservatives need to resist the tribal impulse that often
grows in reaction to the other side’s excesses.
In Somalia, we failed to do this. In America, it is imperative that we
succeed.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover
Institution. Reprinted with permission from Unherd.
--
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