Anatomy of a Tribe
Time to read: approximately 9 minutes in entirety, but the post is best read by skimming to perceive the general concept, except for the last section.
Introduction
I believe that the “tribe of virtue” concept may not be adequately understood, because it has not been explained in great detail. I have so far only described it in general, and expected the reader to intuit what was meant. Not that tribes of virtue are a “new” concept that must be learned – on some level, they are implicitly understood by everybody. Nonetheless, I believe it to be useful to formalize the concept and to make terms for it, so that it can be more readily used in conscious decision making. This post will serve to give a specific example of a tribe of virtue, and to analyze the facets of it. Specifically, using the tribe of the United States, and some of its constituent tribes. To understand this post, one must read Tribes of Virtue, Tribal Legitimacy, and understand the Templist definition of “virtue”.
Order
I will refer to the “order” of tribes and their constituent tribes. In this, I refer to the fact that, for example, “X ethnic group(s)” is a tribe that can exist independently of “X armed forces”, but “X armed forces” cannot exist independently of “people of X ethnic group(s)”, therefore the armed forces is a “less specific tribe” which is “higher” in the order. Two tribes of the same order can coexist with each other, but need not necessarily coexist. For example, “X gang affiliates of brigade X” is a tribe which is dependent on both “X gang affiliates” and “brigade X”, but neither “brigade X” nor “X gang affiliates” depend upon or necessarily imply each other. Therefore order does not have to do with organizational size, but necessary implication relative to something else. It is best to think of it not as “one order of tribes”, but “an order of tribes” relative to a certain tribe.
1. The Tribe of the United States
Selection Characteristics
Some of the selection characteristics of the United States are as follows: (1) birth by parents who are U.S citizens (and the same for them, therefore: the requirement of historical circumstance), (2) live in the territorial United States as a green card holder for a number of years and be willing to follow necessary legal procedures while meeting educational (English language, U.S history) requirements, (3) illegally enter the United States and enter a jurisdiction that treats you as a de facto citizen, (4) willingness to remain part of the United States (including various factors e.g lack of foreign family ties, international application of U.S taxation, lack of financial ability to move, patriotism, etc.), (5) intentional or incidental exposure to U.S culture (and one could break down each facet of exposure), (6) intentional or incidental exposure to U.S law (and one could break down each facet of law).
Tribal Characteristics
Some of the characteristics of the tribe of the United States, inferred from its selection characteristics, are as follows: (1) a large European population derived from early colonization and subsequent past arrivals, a large African population derived from past slavery imports, a population primarily of individuals with parents who are U.S citizens, a population of Europeans with “colonial settler” traits (e.g adventurousness, boldness), a diverse array of ethnic groups due to effects of past long standing immigration policies (2) a population of immigrants (circumstantially, Hispanics in particular) with adequately patient and intelligent qualities necessary to follow the bureaucratic naturalization process, (3) a population of immigrants (circumstantially, Hispanics in particular) with somewhat adventurous and apolitical or entitled qualities, (4) a population of such individuals as the poor, the financially savvy, the purely U.S family-tied, (5) a population primarily of liberal democrats that place a high value on liberty, of consumerists, and also less primarily of other notable types of people in proportion to the primacy of other facets of culture, (6) a population that tends to act according to U.S law, some of the members of which population have the opportunity to move to foreign jurisdictions, but decline to do so, in part because of a preference for U.S law over foreign law. A tribe containing entities created by U.S law, such as the state and federal governments.
Constituent Tribes
Examples of tribes that (more or less) directly constitute the United States (though it would take too long to precisely follow the direct order of constituent tribes without skipping a few orders here and there) are as follows: the United States Armed Forces, Nebraska, California, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission.
I will use the United States Armed Forces as the next example.
Note: Constituent Tribes
Note that every “tribal characteristic” actually describes a certain constituent tribe, even if I do not use the “tribal characteristic” tribes as examples of constituents. It is for this reason that tribes are “ordered”, with some existing within others. For example, in this case, “(5) a population of liberal democrats” describes a constituent tribe.
Note: Virtues
The “tribal characteristics” of a tribe determine what qualities it believes to be virtuous. This is because beliefs about virtue are determined by qualities, and because individuals (and therefore groups) usually hold as virtuous the qualities that they themselves have. This is why tribes are self-concerned and self-perpetuating. They are genuinely concerned with other tribes to the extent that those tribes are alike to themselves. Notice that in larger groups, such as the United States, there may be multiple competing ideals of virtue (black, white) and/or a synthesized ideal of virtue (“skipping” the tribal order of race, or pretending to) in accordance with the variation in tribal characteristics (existence of blacks and whites in the U.S).
2. The Tribe of the United States Armed Forces
Selection Characteristics
Some of the selection characteristics of the U.S Armed Forces are as follows: (1) be at least 17 years old, (2) pass various physical fitness and psychological ordeals, (3) be a U.S citizen or a green card holder, (4) be motivated to enlist, for reasons such as money, adventure, patriotism, etc. (5) be able to take orders from others, (6) intentional or incidental exposure to and toleration of military culture.
Tribal Characteristics
Some of the characteristics of the tribe of the U.S Armed Forces, inferred from its selection characteristics, are as follows: (1) consists of adults, (2) consists of healthy and mentally robust individuals (to the extent of the rigor of selection), (3) consists of U.S citizens or green card holders (and therefore also the probabilistic sub-tribes of “U.S Citizen”, such as “ethnic European”, unless some other selection trait makes this less likely), (4) consists of individuals with adventurous natures, who need to fund college, who feel a love for their country, etc, (5) does not consist of many disobediently natured individuals, (6) consists of humorously immature and thick skinned individuals.
Constituent Tribes
Skipping a few orders in the order of constituent tribes (which would include such things as the branches, divisions, platoons, etc), in the interest of illustration, examples of tribes that ultimately constitute the U.S Armed Forces are: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, irreligious people.
I will use Christians as the next example.
Note: Probabilities
Note that some selection processes are probabilities rather than certainties. They produce similarly probabilistic effects in tribal characteristics. -For example, some people at certain times may be able to enter the armed forces without passing physical fitness requirements, but this is unlikely. Therefore members of the armed forces are “most likely” physically fit up to the standard of such requirements.
3. The Tribe of Christianity
Selection Characteristics
Some of the selection characteristics of Christianity, as currently practiced, are as follows: (1) believe in one God, (2) exposure to and toleration of Christianity’s impressive, popular, safe ambience (3) probably have Christian parents, (4) probably approve of humanitarian and peaceful ideals, (5) believe that humility is important.
Tribal Characteristics
Some of the characteristics of the tribe of Christianity, inferred from its selection characteristics, are as follows: (1) desire for easy, readily apparent, “absolute” authoritative answers, or (less likely) dispassionately motivated belief via cosmological arguments and the like (2) individuals who are normal, socially and emotionally well adjusted, (3) probably individuals who respect parental traditions to some extent, (4) probably individuals with pro-social, idealistic, and gullible qualities, (5) individuals who are humble, especially, lack of individuals who are arrogant.
Constituent Tribes
Skipping a few orders in the order of constituent tribes (which would include such things as denominations, dioceses, parishes, “members of X political party”) in the interest of illustration, examples of tribes that ultimately constitute the Christian tribe are: ethnic Europeans, ethnic Africans, ethnic Asians.
I will use ethnic Europeans as the final example.
4. The Tribe of Ethnic Europeans
Selection Characteristics
At this point, we are speaking of biological selection pressures, such as: seasonality, resource scarcity, cold to temperate climate, low levels of sunlight, Indo-European ancestry, frequent famines, history of frequent large scale conflict, history of proportional male to female sex ratio, the historical black plague (and all other singular historical events).
Tribal Characteristics
I will not list any tribal characteristics, for fear of unduly influencing particular Europeans to hold qualities that I tell them to, as in an imbuement (see Psychological Magic). Europeans are people such as they are. It should be said, in this context and in general, that tribes are most accurately perceived intuitively – there is no way that you can possibly list and characterize every aspect of every tribe. You cannot feasibly even list every aspect of any one individual, and tribes are made up of the aspects of their individuals!
Constituent Tribes
The tribe of Ethnic Europeans consists of lesser groups, which now, due to the biological connotation, make sense in the traditional understanding of tribes: ethnic Germans, ethnic Frenchmen, ethnic Englishmen, etc, and these are made of people from certain localities, and these of still more specific localities, and these eventually of local organizations, and these of friend or small social groups, and these of extended families, and these of families, and these of individuals.
Tribal Worldview
Though implicitly known, tribes of virtue must be definitely conceptualized, because it is only through the “tribal worldview” that an individual can properly perceive the modern era, especially of the West, with its institutionalism, acceleration of diverse information sharing, multiplicity of organizations, and lack of reliance on immediate localities that would form a natural tribal concept that implicit tribal understanding would be adequate for, but the absence of which reliance requires that an explicit tribal understanding be fostered.
June 6, 2022
