A Tribal Story

The following is a story about a make believe tribe, and how it grows through different levels of consciousness - or what I call - “Biases”.

See how many of the biases you relate to, which ones you’re comfortable with, and if you see any similarity between the story of the tribe and our culture today.

Long ago, there was a tribe of people just subsisting off the land. They didn’t really know each other, although they knew other people were there. Their days consisted of scrounging for food, and trying not to be eaten. 

Although life was tough, it wasn’t terribly complex. There was some collaboration between people to better survive, but not much.

Then, some of these people, just surviving, felt secure enough to get curious and asked themselves “Where do the delicious crawly things come from?”. It was a good enough question, but they lacked the experience to answer it. 

Someone came up with the idea that maybe a giant snake, long ago, came through and provided all that was. The earth, the sky, the mountains, the animals, the plants, the rain and the sunshine. The people all liked this story, it made them feel safe that there was a large spirit that cared for them, but they were also fearful that they were so powerless compared to such an amazing, powerful being.

So they did what they could to appease the great spirit. They made little sacrifices where they could, asked the spirit for good fortune, and asked the spirit to hex their enemies.

After a while of living like this, some of the tribespeople felt scorned by the great spirit.

They felt that the spirit didn’t deliver justice as they would like at times, Some people were just bigger and stronger, and took advantage of those who weren’t ,so they took it upon themselves to deliver justice personally.

They’d been wronged by the world, and they sought to overpower those who’d wronged them. If the spirit wouldn’t make things right, they’d use their own power to make it right themselves. If they just had more power, they could overcome those with power now, and then THEY would be the ones who were ‘right’ and ‘just’.

This was a time of immense self expression. It was colorful. It was beautiful. There was singing and dancing and a great deal of interaction between tribespeople. 

Might, and what was ‘right’ were one and the same. 

If you could do it, you did it. Especially if it was something that the great spirit approved of, and something you wanted to do anyway.

After a time of this era of personal power, some of the older tribe members looked around. There was a lot of rape and murder. While the tribe had gone through some growth and security during their time of reverence for the great spirit; numbers appeared to be dwindling because it didn’t seem like a reliable place to raise children.

Women and children didn’t feel safe in that environment, unless they were aligned with the larger and stronger tribespeople.

Because all the tribespeople did whatever they wanted, they were very unsuccessful in warding off attacks from other tribes. Nobody wanted to sacrifice their own self expression for the sake of the tribe defeating competing tribes in battle.

Eventually others noticed this trend too - although it took some time. Drunk on personal power and freedom, nobody wanted to admit they were wrong. It wasn’t until they were individually impacted that they would admit it.

So the tribespeople got together, and decided upon some rules about violence and self expression. If they banded together in agreement, they were stronger than the strongest and meanest tribespeople - and they could more evenly distribute that violence as a punishment for bad behavior, so that larger conflict and retribution might be avoided. 

Violence and murder would be punished, in accordance with the rules they decided on. As well as stealing, eventually adultery, and of course - making false accusations. Otherwise the new ‘state’ sanctioned violence could be used and manipulated against the agreed upon wishes of the tribe.

The elder tribes people regretted moving away from, and  honoring the great spirit, and vowed to bring reverence and respect to the spirit. They included rules about respecting the spirit as well. 

In a sense, the tribe ‘traded’ some of their self expression for the safety of the group. Theft, rape and murder would be reduced significantly, but in return it would be a safer place to raise children, and live a good life.

The population of the tribe boomed. Word got out that this was a safe place to raise children, and other people moved to be with them. People who tried to break the rules were punished, there was accountability, and reliability. There was also agreement about the value of things, which was very useful in trading goods and developing consistent ideas about morality.

After some time of this period of reliability, a very cunning man noticed something.

The tribespeople would follow the same path to the stream where they got their water, and they’d do that every day.

This reliable pattern allowed him to ask just a few of the tribespeople to bring him shells from near the water, and he’d trade the shells for food in the village center. Through very little effort of his own, and the combined reliable effort of others, he was able to succeed personally.

The natural migration of tribal members to the water got him the shells; the tribal rules protected him and his little business; the fear and reverence to the gods ensured the people were reasonably well behaved too. So he was able to start his own family.

A few other ‘businesses’ like this popped up, leveraging the reliable nature of the tribe.

Because those owners profited from managing people and capital - they started to notice things about the nature of people, and really care and empathize with their pain and struggle.

They did what they could to give back to the community on the heels of their success.

They noticed that when the tribal rules were made by the elders long ago about protecting people from violence - some people weren’t treated equally as they are now. Indeed, some people weren’t even considered to be people. And these successful, now caring people were able to get the laws changed and adjusted to be more inclusive.

This was a time of great change, and increased equality. More people were able to prosper and take advantage of the morals, self expression, reliability, and success of the tribe. 

But then things got a little strange.

Because the successful types who were so caring in their approach for those less fortunate than themselves, began seeing ALL rules as oppressive. Forgetting that it was these rules that birthed the time of great reliability. The agreed upon values and meaning of things began to erode.

It didn’t affect the successful types, because they had a great deal of resources. But the younger people who were still making their way in the world - could no longer depend on the reliable distribution of violence by the state, to protect themselves and raise their children.

Those younger families were now at the mercy of the personal power types again - because the successful types (who started off meaning well), saw ALL rules as bad and oppressive.

When agreed upon values from the time of great reliability were removed, the powerful and the rich - were all that remained. 

There was no agreed upon values or rules, and the reliable culture that once flourished - was devolved to ‘might = right’ once again.”