I would really like the current repetitive and essentially
meaningless use of the term “tribal” to stop. It is used as shorthand to stand
in for opposing political sides that are marked by thoughtless or automatic hostility. I would
prefer to hear something like “mob” used to mean a group that is easily led and
given to unpremeditated behavior. A mob, or mobbish behavior, would at least conjure
up images of a group that is prone to violence and has a history of being
irrationally driven such as a lynch mob. Using “mob” would also have the
advantage of not distorting a reference to a group that has much worth
admiring.
A loose dictionary definition of a tribe is “a
division within a traditional society consisting of families or communities
linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and
dialect.” These affiliations of people can be more or less neutral or can be a
chosen relationship rather than one that occurs automatically.
In the US, a tribe is most commonly conceived to be a
traditional group of Native Americans, and in no small part this renders the
current usage racist. Such intent may be far from a user’s mind but
nevertheless political usage carries a reminder of the first European colonizers’ enmity
with native peoples. There is no reason to rehearse that history here other
than to point out that the deadly violence generated in succeeding centuries
was made to seem inevitable, and this notion of inevitable hostility is still
carried by the word in today’s political climate.
But tribe need not refer only to an ethnic origin. An
accurate meaning of a tribal experience might refer to people who share a common
history, or a common belief. People of a tribe join together, among many
purposes, for mutual comfort and survival, to enact a common culture, to create
a home.
Using the word “tribal” as a careless stand-in for
automatic opposition in this current political time is not just a semantic
error, but part of the danger that increases daily. When Hannah Arendt accused
Adolph Eichmann of banality that permitted his capacity for evil, she was
referring to just this sort of thoughtless language that maintains stereotypes
while sliding past any real meaning.
Gemstone: Blue topaz