From the earliest time that animal beings formed social bonds, tribes have existed. The smallest tribe is the family. Then comes the immediately surrounding community. And then larger constructs expanding outwards. The largest tribe today is the nation which is formalized into a nation-state. A larger tribe cannot exist without the existence of smaller tribes within it. Attempting to subsume the smaller tribes or to erase their separate identities usually leads to a weakening of the larger tribe.
There is value in plurality and multiplicity. Human beings are experimental in nature. So a particular tribe can experiment with something and if it works, then it can be adapted and adopted by another tribe. However, if it doesn’t work the negative effects are limited to that one tribe and a reset is possible. If the whole world becomes a single tribe then it’s a single point of failure: If the experiment is carried out on that one single tribe and it fails, the consequences will be catastrophic and a reset may not be possible. Humanity may decline and human beings may ultimately cease to exist.
Therefore, it is not just that tribes will always exist. It is also that tribes must always exist. A tribe tends to ossify over time. In order for it to rejuvenate it needs infusion from outside, from other tribes. This need exists at all level of tribes. This is why, for example, some amount of immigration is necessary for nations to have the possibility of rejuvenation. However, it is also true that too much immigration in too short a time would disrupt the tribe or alter it fundamentally which would weaken its identity and core culture, thus destroying it.
If you’ve ever heard of this term “tribalism” it is likely you heard it as a negative connotation, as though being in a tribe is a bad thing and the best thing is to be a tribeless individual. You may also hear it as a word in opposition to another concept: “principles”. The people who tell you this won’t tell you that principles arose through an evolutionary process. A process that involved intra-tribe and inter-tribe interactions. Here is a brief discussion on Principles and Tribalism. Principles cannot exist without tribes and tribes cannot exist without principles. There are many principles that are not universal and so must not be imposed on tribes that don’t subscribe to it.
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