Tribalism sets us up to battle each other…

Me and my tribe against you and your tribe.

So here we are doing our tribal thing and there you are doing your tribal thing. We think we’re demigods and you’re demons. You think you’re demigods and we’re demons.

Such a trap.

And maybe luck is with us and we experience a moment of enlightenment…

Oh, I see, we’re mirror images of each other.

And maybe we take hands and step behind the scenes to discover how tribalism is working against us, hurting all of us, putting us all in the same terrible danger.

And then we discover we have…

A common enemy.

And it’s not each other. It’s our human operating system which runs on tribal fundamentalism. And sets us bitterly against each other.

And suddenly…

We find ourselves standing on common ground.

And clarity comes to us. And compassion. And now…

I see you in me and me in you.

And…

We can have conversations we’ve never had before.

Nurturing conversations. Healing conversations. Trans–tribal conversations.

And if I can feel for you in this deep, deep, fundamental, tender way, then…

I’m going to want to advocate for you.

And…

Be there for you.

And…

Be on your side.

And if you do the same in return, now we’ve got something really good going on between us instead of the nasty old tribal hatreds.

And personally, I’d rather we hate our tribal operating system instead of hating each other.

2.4  Self–defense without demonizing