Implicit in the founding of the United States is the principle of breaking the bonds of locality based tribalism, and forming a new tribe out of a heterogeneous population. The advent of the Internet, which is, after all, an American invention, has broadened this new definition of tribalism past anything our Founding Fathers could possibly have imagined. Tribalism is a natural tendency in humanity. The Internet has facilitated tribalism by allowing tribes to form based on other factors than common living space or blood and marital relationships.
The United States has traditionally been regarded as “the great melting pot of the world”. In fact, it is a breeding ground for new types of tribal associations [in the primate anthropological sense]. Whereas in the past these tribes have generally been engendered by commonality of locality or country of origin, the maturation of the Internet as a household appliance in the United States has enabled the forming of tribal groups and loyalties based on non-traditional criteria. Recent definitions of tribalism call it the human tendency to group together, based on common interest [Franklin Electronic Dictionary, and tcc. . net/tcc/tribe. htm].
Contrast this with the definition of tribe from a 1944 dictionary’s [Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary] definition of tribe: A social group comprising a series of families, clans, or generations, together with slaves, adopted strangers, etc. You can see how in the course of fifty years the definition of tribalism has changed, and the Internet is changing it even more. It is also changing the way that people in the United States relate to each other. Throughout history, tribalism has been evident, but tribalism is evident in our behavior even before that.
Let us examine our knowledge of our primate ancestors. Primates lived in tribes. Some were based on harems, others on monogamous relationships, while others were based on a concept of free sexuality, [Why is Sex Fun? ] but all the tribes had one thing in common: they all had their area. It belonged to them, and all their dealings with other beings were based on this geographical location. Tribalism is one of the oldest and most natural organizational strategies of behavior. [www2. cruzio. com/~boffo/Tribal~1. htm] Viewpoints based on tribal conditioning are inherent to the human condition.
People tend to automatically and subconsciously view them as the correct, obvious normal way of doing things. [www. paradigm-sys. com/cttart/sci-docs/ctt89-tgogt. html] One can observe tribalizing behavior all the way up through the present. The United States was unique in that it resulted in new forms of tribalism from the outset of its development. To start on the biggest level, you have the states themselves. They are artificial tribalism in a big way. All the people who live in those states are part of the US, yet they are also part of this artificial state tribe.
To demonstrate this, consider the battles at the Continental Congress. A group of people with the common interest of creating a new government for themselves and their citizens still spent most of their time arguing and ranting over the privileges that were going to be given to each state (read here “tribe”). Political parties are obvious examples of artificial tribal groups, but one can also look at schools. Universities are a good example. People go to a university from all over the country [or in some cases the world], and are expected to root for the university, wear their colors, sometimes even things like special university ties.
So, they are a part of the university tribe when they go there, no matter where they came from. Then, when they leave the university, the alumni are expected to carry the tribe with them wherever they go. Look for instance at the little tiger droppings of Princeton University alumni clubs – exclusive organizations scattered all over the United States whose membership is based on former tribal association. [A Princeton alumna] We can even look at high schools. They are even more artificial than universities, because someone who lives right next door to you can go to a different school from the one you go to.
Within the high school you are expected to root for their sports teams, and have “school spirit”, and even attend pep rallies for said teams, even if you yourself dislike the teams and would rather be taking academic classes. Then, within the school, you have other little groups. For instance the group of people who go out during games and cheer for the sports players, or on the other hand, you have people who go for pursuits that actually involve one to have a brain, things such as Advanced Placement History or honors classes. You find tribalism everywhere.
In fact, our tribal identities may shift according to the issue under question. [www. dpsfv. com/tribes. htm] For instance, if you live in Texas, and someone says, “New Jersey sucks and Texas rules. ” Well, as someone living in Texas, you might be prone to agree with this. However, if you have also gone to Princeton for university, then as an alumna of Princeton you might be prone to disagree. Because of humans’ genetic proclivity to tribalize, they find safety in groups. Within their chosen group they have a sense of belonging, that as a part of the group they are more powerful than they are alone. ww. concentric. net/~salisar/tribal. htm] However, there is also sometimes a message of, “Ditch your brain, subordinate your will, accept that your life has no reality except as an appendage of the tribal organism. ” [multiculturalism. aynrand. org/tribalism. html]
Tribalism as implemented on the Internet is a bit of a different thing though. See, with any other form of tribalism, it all comes down to location. Within the Internet however, it is based on common interests. You have to actually go out and find a tribal alliance, e. g. chat room. When you connect, you are not automatically put into a chat room (although with services like AOL or CompuServe you can push a button and be magically transported into the chat room). This puts one in the position on having to go out and find a chat room where they will be able to find something to talk about with the other people. So, upon what basis do people search for chat rooms? The basis of common interests, of course. The Internet allows people to join on the basis of common interests that no one in their area may share.
For instance, if someone is really into skiing, and they live in Texas, there might not be that many people who live there who are into skiing, but those who are can logon to the Internet, and go to, say, http://www. outbackskiing. net/, and chat with other people who share their interest in skiing. This is only one example of how the digital technology of the Internet can enhance the tendency towards tribalism by allowing people to connect with people more like themselves regardless of where they happen to be located. [www. startribune. com/stonline/digage/tribalis. ml]
Tribalism on the Internet is not even limited by such things as gender, because people can always lie about their gender and no one will know the difference. Perhaps it is time for a more formal definition of the Internet. The Internet is an electronic communications network that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the world. [http://www. m-w. com/cgi-bin/dictionary] The Internet started out as a means of information interchange among several universities doing work for the Department of Defense and their government liaisons.
It then expanded to include most universities, where it was used for communications within the university as well as off campus and to other organizations. Then it expanded to be available to the general public. Well, the general public liked this new invention, the Internet. It let them talk to people from all over, and go look for information on things their library might not have, and all sorts of wonderful stuff like that. At that point the Internet was somewhat universally integrated in that all three of those sectors shared the same electronic backbone.
Well, now they each are going more self-specific. Many corporations have private networks connected to the Internet only marginally or not at all. The original University network is being duplicated on an independent backbone with higher bandwidth to give it more speed. This is because higher technology creates more tribal fragmentation. [www. dixienet. org/spatriot/vol2no2/member4. html] Technology can be considered by some to surround itself with mysticism, and in doing so it creates tribes of those who can best understand the mystery and jargon of it. [www2. sva. edu/readings/techno-mystics. ml]
As it was said in one place, “The Internet reinforces trends toward more tribalism. ” [www. startribune. com/stonline/html/tribalis. htm] The Internet was originally an American creation, and primarily still is dominated by the United States. It was started by the American government, and within American universities, and within America. We were simply nice enough to extend it to the rest of the world, but they are still not as connected as we are. In America, a computer is a household appliance, and the Internet is something lots of people have on their computer.
Also, we have ISPs [Internet Service Providers] that can give you Internet service for prices like $19. 95 per month. [http://www. earthlink. net/home/access/] However in other parts of the world, Internet providers give connect at prices that are charging by the hour, which makes it more difficult to justify being online for long periods of time when it costs so much. In fact, it is not just the cost of the connection that must be considered. The United States is one of the few countries in the world where use of a phone line is not charged by the minute.
This is why the United States is more universally connected than other countries, and why the language of the Internet is American. This invention will obviously affect the historical evolution of the United States. One thing the Internet does for us, is allow for instantaneous information transfer. Also, we can get the information from many different viewpoints. This differs from traditional (e. g. , newspaper) reporting because every person who writes something has a bias regarding that thing. Thus, everything they write about it will be under influence of this bias.
Citizens will learn about new events from the traditional media, print and broadcast, within the scope of the author’s bias only. With the Internet, you can see the opinion of many different people, with different biases. This is one reason that the Internet is a favorite of special interest groups. There, they can put out their opinions for people all across the United States to see, and hopefully agree with. [www. concentric. net/~salisar/tribal. html] The Internet also has quite an effect on politics. Most of the people in the United States Congress have a homepage on the web. ttp://www. house. gov/house/MemberWWW. html, http://www. senate. gov/senators/index. cfm]
Also, many political candidates attempt to use tribal loyalties concerning technological subject to gather supporters [www. dpsv. com/tribe. htm]. The Internet has done quite a lot to reduce isolationism as well. It used to be, if you lived fifty miles away from the nearest town, you wouldn’t know a thing about what was going on in the world. Well, now, with the Internet, you can just go online and get news from all over the world.
The Internet also does not allow individual states, or even countries to be isolationist anymore, because citizens can go on the Internet and find out all the stuff that the government is trying to keep hushed up. You can actually compare the Internet revolution, to the transportation revolution. With the transportation revolution you had automobiles, so that you did not have to live close to where you worked any longer. Instead you could live thirty miles away, and drive to work every day. Well, with the revolution of the Internet, you no longer have to be close to the information you seek.
Instead of having to go to a library to find out what you need to know, you can go on the Internet, and search for it, and the information will be right there in your own home. Also, people can telecommute, and then they can work from home, without going anywhere, and they can live half a world away from where they work. This seems as though it’s furthering that aspect of the transportation revolution by much. As another point, the transportation revolution made the city disappear as a necessary thing for socialization, and the Internet revolution has again, furthered this aspect, by literally removing all barriers to socialization.
Another effect that transportation had on the United States, was the fact that it made it easier to get to places, and so evolved the large chain stores of today, which effectively squashed small businesses. However, although it is not quite so evident, the trend is for small businesses to come back to their own on the Internet, where they can compete on a somewhat equal footing with big stores, not just on a local, but on a national, or even worldwide basis. The neighborhood shopkeeper is traditionally the quartermaster of the tribe.
Now, with the Internet, the quartermaster will build his or her own tribe, self-selected from the set of their own customers with interests in that merchant’s specialty. For the future, I believe that the Internet is a good thing. It is helping America return to its tradition of community, without the historical geographic limitations of forming a community. Hate groups try to form communities on the Internet, but they tend to be blocked by responsible citizens, and sometimes the facilitators of the Internet themselves.
The Internet will never allow another Hitler, because with the Internet everyone can see and dissect the theories and ideas, and the intelligent people will shoot them down. Even that which frightens people most about the Internet, the dissemination of facts about their person habits and individual preferences is a good thing, because it will, in fact, assist people to find tribal groups which share their own special interests and in which they will feel at home.
