The Danger of Specialized Tribes
As someone fixated on the Renaissance Man architype, the movement toward specialization is particularly concerning to me. Specialization, driven by our ever-advancing knowledge of this world, creates new branches on the tree of life – new possibilities to explore. For example, in my world of filmmaking, it wasn’t long ago movies (or “moving pictures”) were introduced as the first means of video storytelling. Those interested in the medium became filmmakers. Flash forward to today. We still have movies, but now we also have television, and not just television, but scripted shows, reality shows, hosted shows, commercials, etc.. More recently we’ve developed web-based media like vlogs, short form content, and on and on and on. The “moving picture” industry has fragmented into hundreds of subsections. Like branches on a tree. With every new branch comes a new subculture. The vlog culture separates itself from those who work on large movie sets, which is different from people who make commericals. We’re constantly forming new tribes.
There’s nothing wrong with tribes. We’ve had them since the dawn of time and they’re not going away any time soon. We find community through tribes. Family. Belonging. Purpose. They’re the driving force behind human culture. Tribes have very deep roots in our DNA, but there’s one key trait of tribes to be aware of in this age of specialization. Historically speaking, if someone from another tribe came into your tribe… they were probably there to kill you. In order to survive, our ancestors learned to be very wary of outsiders. What kind of animal teeth were on their necklace? How many prongs did their spear have? What did their speech sound like? What was the color of their skin? These differences, as innocuous as they may seem on their face, enabled tribes to defend themselves and survive.
Thankfully in today’s world, we generally don’t have to worry about someone outside our tribe tossing a homemade spear into our neck. But somewhere deep inside our primitive reptilian brain that little red flag goes up when an outsider walks into our camp. Problem is, our tribes are a lot smaller these days thanks to specialization. We call them niches. Those tree branches have fragmented into millions of twigs, creating billions of outsiders. However, they’re no longer out to kill us.
This is particularly important in today’s tolerance landscape because many people are not aware of this primitive red flag that’s wired into everyone. So when it’s raised, we feel it, but we don’t call it what it is. Instead, we interpret it as “I don’t like that person,” or “they’re doing something wrong,” or “they’re not like me.” Instead of creating unity, we create division. Instead of building community, we build walls.
So, next time an outsider walks into your tribe, be aware of that primal red flag. Recognize it for what it is, and when you realize they’re not there to kill you – let it go.
