Tribal warfare

The human race is not evolving. It is devolving.

Thousands of years ago humanity was scattered across the earth. Community and village populations consisted of people from just a few families. They looked similar, shared the same belief systems, and, for the most part, married those from within their own community. They also were wary of others who appeared different from their own, often to the extent of warring against the outsiders. Thus began centuries of wars over territories, kingdoms, and resources. Those who were conquered were either assimilated into the dominant culture or kept separate as slaves. In either case, people were brought together and the inevitable mixing of clans by marriages and brokered arrangements began.

America became established as the New World where opportunity abounded. Natural disasters, wars, disease in Europe and Asia made America even more attractive as a place to begin anew. Italian, Irish, German, Polish, and many other cultures arrived in this land over a period of 150 years. The natural tendency was to stay with your own kind, but the competition for resources often pitted different ethnic groups against each other. The Five Points area of New York City is one example. Irish Catholics, newly emancipated African-Americans (slavery was abolished in New York in 1827), Anglo Protestants, and others were all packed into a disease-ridden slum. Years of violence followed as each tribe claimed to be the ruling tribe. Peace came only when the religious and business communities recognized that poverty was the underlying cause of the violence. They then sought to remedy such and in so doing created the thriving community of today. The advent of civil rights legislation, raising awareness of strength in diversity, and less tolerance for discriminatory behavior over the last 50 years should have made America a better place.

But now we face the old problems again with new divisions. Left against right; liberals against conservatives; black lives against blue lives; LGBT community against straights; Republicans against Democrats. Maybe those problems never went away entirely, but we did have them bottled up and put away in the basement. Now, with a president who came to office by stirring up our fears of "others," we are back to the Age of Tribalism.

No longer is compromise considered a good thing. If you are friends of the "other side" you are looked upon by your own with suspicion and scorned. Republicans have the White House, Congress, and a majority of statehouses and governorships. But the Republican tribe has devolved into more tribes. Snarling and hurling spears at each other like Neanderthals; they now resort to cannibalism to rid the party of their own that suddenly don't look like they do.

Our president, frustrated with his lack of understanding of the hard issues, retreats to his baser instincts by calling for a rally of "his people." It is so much easier to do than trying to understand the hard issues like health care, North Korea, and budgetary constraint. He feels better about himself as he riles the crowd, yells obscenities, and incites his base to "lock her up!" or "Fire that SOB!" He calls the media and those who disagree with him "enemies." He feels renewed and validated by the roar of the crowd as he belittles those who oppose his views.

Are Americans a single people? Or have we split into two tribes with equal numbers but opposing views? E.O. Wilson, a famed biologist and author of The Social Conquest of Earth wrote: "We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology." He makes the point that tribal conflict, where believers on the inside were pitted against infidels on the outside, was the primary driving force that shaped biological human nature.

The scientist part of me is fascinated by this experiment in social biology. The other part of me wonders if we can survive.

-- Devin Houston is the president/CEO of Houston Enzymes. Send comments or questions to [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.