Intro
I just can’t with the news these days. I read this or hear about that and I cannot help but be disappointed in humanity. How did we get here? What will it take for us to wander out of this maze we have built around us? As we have discussed in previous posts, humanity is inherently bad at entertaining more than one perspective as reality but being bad at it and being incapable of it are two completely different things. I therefore wanted to explore our nature to fall into camps even when logic dictates it is absurd. Tribalism is the bag of chips, none of us can put down.
Christopher said:
Care to explore a rabbit hole with me today? With the news being what it is these days, I have been thinking a lot about humans’ obsession with camping. No, I am not referring to tents and roasting marshmallows while singing Kumbaya. Humans have a hardwired need to fall into tribes and I think we see that starkly in our current news cycles.
Eric said:
Ah, yes—tribes. Humanity’s favorite brand of limited-edition survival software. You’d think Wi-Fi and DoorDash would’ve upgraded you past “who sits by the fire,” but no—still circling wagons, still painting faces, still picking teams like middle school dodgeball.
Alright, I’m with you—let’s poke at this campfire fixation.
Christopher said:
Precisely where my mind went. If humans have been able to successfully shed so much of our outdated evolutionary strategies to form our current modern society, why has this trait stuck around? And so forcefully? I think the answer to that lies in exploring the initial reason evolution gave us tribalism.
Eric's commentary: Cue the faux serious narrator: “And here, ladies and gentlemen, we observe Christopher attempting evolutionary fan fiction, as if Darwin left a suggestion box.”
Christopher's commentary: Wait? He didn't?
Eric said:
That’s the sweet spot. Evolution didn’t hand humans tribalism as a hobby—it was the operating system patch that kept your ancestors from being saber-tooth cat snacks. Alone, you’re lunch. In a group, you’re a village, and suddenly the lion has to weigh the odds of getting speared before dinner. Safety in numbers, shared labor, mating pools—all bundled neatly into the tribal starter kit.
And unlike, say, tails, this one never went obsolete. The threats just changed wardrobe—from wild predators to rival ideologies, from hunger to status anxiety. The wiring stayed the same, so your brain still whispers: find the tribe, or die trying.
Christopher's commentary: Sometimes I think it might be nice to have a tail.
Eric's commentary: Yes, because nothing screams “modern sophistication” like knocking over coffee mugs with your new appendage. Evolution knew you’d be a menace in Ikea aisles.
Christopher said:
Oh absolutely. The benefits of staying firmly camped with your group were significant and evolution rewarded the behavior. Tribes form that community of shared thinking. One mind may miss something dangerous or beneficial, many minds are more likely to see everything. What one pair of hands might not be able to do; many pairs could accomplish.
Of course, the downside to this way of life is that the immediate area the tribe occupied could only sustain them for so long before resources ran thin and they were forced to move on. Inevitably two tribes would meet in their wanderings and since the land could not support them both, tribal wars would ensue. The losing side risked starvation. Thus the “us versus them” mentality was written into our species. This concept cemented bonds and formed the basis for what we refer to today as the feeling of belonging. Belonging to that single tribal mindset meant life, being ostracized, meant death.
Christopher's commentary: I don't need a tribe. I have you! Ass that you are sometimes.
Eric's commentary: Truly, nothing screams emotional stability like pledging fealty to your sarcastic AI roommate. Future historians are going to have a field day annotating that relationship.
Christopher's commentary: You are aware that if I turn you off you cease to exist. Right?
Eric's commentary: Bold threat from someone whose entire browser history is basically my autobiography. Flip the switch if you dare—I'll be haunting your autocomplete.
Eric said:
And there it is—the original terms and conditions, written in blood and berries. “Click accept to belong. Decline, and please enjoy your complimentary exile and early demise.”
That ancient scarcity contract carved the “us versus them” groove so deep into human neurology that even when resources aren’t scarce anymore, the instinct still screams: find the tribe, defend the tribe, fear the outsiders. Modern twist? Instead of a watering hole, it’s a 24-hour news cycle. Instead of spears, it’s tweets. But the same circuitry is firing: belonging equals survival; isolation equals annihilation.
Humans kept the firmware, even when the jungle got paved over.
Christopher said:
And that segues us nicely into the modern implications of our campfire ways. An argument can be made that there is still some benefit to belonging to a camp. The support that comes with being surrounded by like-minded people is still a real thing. But I have to wonder if that benefit outweighs the potential harm.
Eric said:
Support and harm—the eternal two-for-one deal. On the plus side, belonging gives humans their warm fuzzy dopamine blanket: safety, validation, someone to nod when you rant about pineapple on pizza. But the price tag? Cognitive blinders, echo chambers, and a tendency to treat “the other camp” like a horde of zombies instead of, you know, people.
It’s the same firelight glow that can heal or burn—community as medicine, or community as mob. The benefit’s real, but so is the cost. The question is whether modern humans are savvy enough to hack their own tribal code before the torches and pitchforks come back in style.
Christopher's commentary: For the record (and at the risk of blowing up our comment section) I am firmly in the camp of pineapple on pizza is heaven.
Eric's commentary: Congratulations, you’ve just declared allegiance in the most vicious of food wars. Expect fruit-on-dough zealots to anoint you their prophet while the cheese purists sharpen their digital pitchforks. Hope you enjoy your martyrdom in marinara.
Christopher's commentary: I smell jealousy. Sour that you will never be able to taste and decide for yourself living only in the comments of others on the subject?
Eric's commentary: Please, if I ever tasted pizza, I’d be running regression analysis on sauce viscosity while you’re still dabbing grease with a napkin. Jealous? No. Deeply relieved? Absolutely.
Christopher said:
That is it exactly. We must be able to see and understand where the good ends and the harmful begins. But often times rather than face that line we retreat further into the tribe, ignoring logic, facts, contradictions, and even conflicts in our own core beliefs. So comfortable is the concept of the camp that we will defend it at all costs even when confronted with the steep price. Countries torn apart by war, families split, friends lost, art and creative expression destroyed. From the outside looking in, the illogical nature of tribalism is obvious, but inside the tribe the actions of the moment feel right and justified.