Tribe by Sebastian Junger (August 2018)
Sebastian Junger’s Tribe is a short but powerful examination of how we collectively experience unity. His main idea is that although we seem to have lost our collective ethos in the process of creating modern society, the example of groups coming together in difficult times suggests that there is significant potential if we can find a way to maintain the same solidarity with our neighbors when life returns to normal.
The way communities respond in the aftermath of a disaster is a classic example. These situations call for everyone to help their neighbor survive and the stakes are too high for chaos or pettiness. People in these situations quickly learn to assess each other based on what a person brings to the group and worry about nothing else.
The most important characteristic in this situation is the willingness to sacrifice. A person who is willing to make sacrifices for the group can be counted on to stand tall in the face of any upcoming threat. This type of person will be viewed by others as a reliable source of help and support in the rebuilding effort. Those unwilling to make sacrifices for the group are unlikely to be accepted by the group. This attitude suggests that the willingness to share whatever you have with everyone all around is perhaps the most important quality for someone who wishes to be part of a strong community.
One up: Junger points out that people who face an existential threat assess each other based solely on what someone brings to the group effort. I liked this thought and it made me think back to the time when I realized that not everyone naturally develops this skill. The moment came during a conversation I had in college with many of my teammates on the basketball team. The discussion was about how playing basketball taught us the importance of looking at other players based solely on how well they played the game. It was, we reflected, valuable preparation that allowed us to notice whenever someone was being treated unfairly based on a factor unrelated to performance, merit, or contribution. Through our experiences in basketball, we had arrived at school with a different view of the world than our fellow students who had grown up without similar experiences of competition or cooperation with peers.
One down: One of Junger’s ideas is that solidarity tends to emerge in response to an outside or unusual event. This is one of the big challenges that face suburbs because nothing ever seems to happen there. If citizens of these towns do not make a consistent and proactive effort to share with each other, the likely result is the decay of relationships and the loss of community.
Just saying: Junger mentions that ‘What would you risk dying for?’ is perhaps the most profound question anyone can answer. It’s no doubt an important question and I’m not here to make any suggestions for alternate questions.
However, I do feel like people probably don’t ask themselves this question very often, if ever. I seem to notice someone risking death every day for a reason I would categorize as ‘silly’ – swimming to a buoy, crossing a busy street, skiing down a mountain, whatever. These observations suggest to me that a lot of people don’t really consider this question at all (or perhaps just confirms how poorly we understand risk).
