Categories: Personal Excellence

We should feel close to every human being, the same way we feel close to a member of our community

Have you ever felt this warmth in your heart when you realize you’re talking to someone who is part of your community, someone whose background is the same as yours or your family’s? What is this warmth? Is it a tribalist pleasure or relief? Why can we develop such feeling with the whole humanity? 

Maybe, from time immemorial, we have been chasing security. This implies we needed to create strong bonds between us and a small group of people to secure our survival. Generation after generation, we may have wire our brain to feel pleasure or love when we identify someone being part of our tribe. Through tribalism, we have survived. Yet, why should we still feel the same today as we no longer live in a isolated community? Can we feel this sensation of love and security when we meet a complete stranger, completely alien to our background? 

Probably not. 

Is there another way to connect and feel reassured with a foreigner? 

Yes, indeed. 

Even if some counties are racially-focused, others do accept the idea of racial-free bonds. 

There are indeed different ways to connect with someone which may not be as instantaneous as the ones which are tribally based. 

We all share a common humanity, this seems not to be enough to create strong – unfortunately – bonds between people. 

What other levers could we use to feel deeply connected and deeply reassured with someone? 

This may be contextual: In a group, we tend to look for what separates and reproaches us. So, depending on the group, we may create in our mind bonds which wouldn’t exist in other situations. For instance, two Spanishards of different regions may no feel particularly close to each other in Spain whereas both of them immersed in another country, they would believe themselves as instantaneously connect by their nationality. 

Should we wait for a alien invasion to create an instantaneous –  and racial-free –  link between humans? I wish we wouldn’t have to do so. 

Before such an event to occur, what could be done to abolish the ethnicity awareness and other borders that separate human beings? 

A tribe is essentially a group of people sharing the same cultural heritage. Thus, we could state that globalization is a process of cultural uniformization aiming to a global tribalism. To some extent, this works. However, why this is not working everywhere? Probably because not all culture become globalized, a few are actually globalizing. Could we possibly make a global culture a merging of all? Probably not, since culture is a soft power and powers want their culture to dominate. 

If culture is used as propaganda, how can we create a global identity free from tribalism or, at least, one that is more inclusive?

I only see two options : 

  • Minority groups resign their tribalism (and thus their identity) to the dominating one – something I reject even if it’s an ongoing process
  • The creation of a universal narrative surpassing others, which all of humanity could embrace and which would integrate all previous concepts of tribalisms like a colossal though coherent puzzle.
Edward

Recent Posts

The People We Appreciate The Most Are Often Those Who Have Developed The Most Mature Psychological Defense Mechanisms

He Had This Way of Disappearing When Things Weren’t Going Well He had this way…

7 hours ago

The More Powerful You Feel, The More You Must Humble Yourself Before God

Power acts as a psychological revealer: as it elevates you, it gradually erases the gazes…

1 week ago

How To Become A Good Person?

Moral suffering often takes root in the harsh judgment we pass on ourselves. Happiness, by…

2 weeks ago

Speak to People as If They Were All Awakened

A common mistake we all make when communicating with others is to take them as…

3 weeks ago

AI Anxiety

The Industrial Revolution amplified, or even created, the very notion of productivity in people’s minds;…

4 weeks ago

Why Do Some People Lack Basic Decency?

The foundation of a harmonious social life is mutual respect and understanding. Yet this ability…

1 month ago