The return to 'tribalism'?

David Brooks points to an utterly fascinating study about how identities have come to shape core personal beliefs and value systems in the US. The report by More in Common breaks down Americans into seven groups, from left to right, with the most active groups being on the extremes - Progressive Activists (8%) and Devoted Conservatives (6%) - and the richest, whitest, most educated, and most secure. 

The cleavage in their respective views, driving what Brooks calls a "rich, white civil war" and a clash of "privilege", is just stunning. Sample this,

Ninety percent of Devoted Conservatives think immigration is bad, while 99 percent of Progressive Activists think it is good. Seventy-six percent of Devoted Conservatives think Islam is more violent than other religions; only 3 percent of Progressive Activists agree. Eighty-six percent of Devoted Conservatives think it’s more important for children to be well behaved than creative. Only 13 percent of Progressive Activists agree... Ninety-one percent of Progressive Activists say sexual harassment is common, while only 12 percent of Devoted Conservatives agree. Ninety-two percent of Progressive Activists say people don’t take racism seriously enough, compared with 6 percent of Devoted Conservatives. Eighty-six percent of Progressive Activists say life’s outcomes are outside people’s control; only 2 percent of Devoted Conservatives agree. Progressive Activists are nearly three times as likely to say they are ashamed to be American as the average voter... The researchers asked a wide variety of questions, on everything from child-rearing to national anthem protests. In many cases, 97 to 99 percent of Progressive Activists said one thing and 93 to 95 percent of Dedicated Conservatives said the opposite. There’s little evidence of individual thought, just cult conformity. The current situation really does begin to look like the religious wars that ripped through Europe after the invention of the printing press, except that our religions now wear pagan political garb.

Sample this

Our research concludes that we have become a set of tribes, with different codes, values, and even facts. In our public debates, it seems that we no longer just disagree. We reject each other’s premises and doubt each other’s motives. We question each other’s character. We block our ears to diverse perspectives. At home, polarization is souring personal relationships, ruining Thanksgiving dinners, and driving families apart. We are experiencing these divisions in our workplaces, neighborhood groups, even our places of worship. In the media, pundits score points, mock opponents, and talk over each other. On the Internet, social media has become a hotbed of outrage, takedowns, and cruelty—often targeting total strangers... Everyone appears to have a varying version of world events, and it feels harder than ever to sort fact from fiction. Our news feeds seem to just echo our own views, and when people post alternative opinions they are often attacked by angry mobs. We don't seem to disagree anymore without perceiving another person's views as stupid, wrong or even evil...

Often more than 90 percent of people in one of these groups holds the same view about a controversial issue, and typically, it will be the reverse of whatever the opposing wing believes. In contrast, the remaining two-thirds of Americans at the center show more diversity in their political views, express less certainty about them, and are more open to compromise and change—even on issues that we all tend to consider highly polarizing.

Immigration; racial justice and police brutality; sex, gender, and morality; and terrorism and Islam are at the forefront of what drives the cleavages. 

Views on feminism...

... and Donald Trump

A few thoughts

1. As Brooks writes, the power of narratives is immense and all-encompassing. Powerful narratives exercise their hegemony over the two extremist factions. And their conversations set the social and political agenda for everyone. The hegemony of such narratives is impervious to logical thinking and analytical reasoning. One only needs to look at the hegemony exercised by other dominant prevailing narratives.

Just as such narratives, and its hegemony, serves to create cohesion, its absence detracts from coherent thinking and action. Where will such a narrative emerge for those in between the two extremist factions?

2. The clash of these two narratives resembles the the classic Hegelian dialectic. In such dialectical inter-play of thesis and anti-thesis, the synthesis can emerge either from outside the two warring groups or from within them. The Marxian, Keynesian, and Communist counter-revolutions emerged from within the elites, in particular from the liberal sides in each case. 

Unfortunately, and this has been the biggest disappointment, the liberal elites uniformly appear so captivated by their current narrative and so hateful of the other narrative that there may have left very limited room for alternative thinking. 

For example, how many liberal intellectuals and opinion makers oppose excessive financialisation, trade liberalisation, globalisation, and migration and support (at least the core principles of) Trump's policies on China and forcing US MNCs to relocate back? How many of them are, what Daniel Bell described himself as "socialist in economics, a liberal in politics, and a conservative in culture"? 

3. It may be incorrect to view this trend as being an exception. Historically tribalism and factionalism have been the norm. Modernism and the dawn of the liberal era was supposed to have ended such divisive trends. In fact, we may actually be witnessing the return to the norm after a brief lull. Proclamations of "end of ideology" and "end of history" have turned out to be remarkably naive. Like with analysing other trends, we may have forgotten to take the "long view of history". 

4. The near complete unanimity among members of the two extreme factions on important social issues and trends offers a stark contrast with the considerable heterogeneity in views among the other factions. Clearly, the more educated, more globally exposed, richer, and more comfortably ensconced populace suffer from groupthink and herd mentality. What makes this so - over-confidence, complacency, hubris, intolerance of alternative views?

It is ironical that liberals, who are supposed to be the most eclectic and hold the widest array of views, have become so parochial!

5. Finally, as Brooks writes, politics and politicking is the turf of privilege. Others struggle to live their lives and make ends meet.

As if to underline the deep roots of tribalism, even dietary preferences are not spared from the influence of politics and tribalism (or vice-versa).

All this is a package and who knows in which direction causality runs!