I want to expand on some ideas I outlined here regarding the development of human consciousness and identity. Human development can be characterized by 5 stages. I will associate each stage with a specific characteristic and a social institution that helps mediate that characteristic.
These characteristics and institutions developed at different stages of history. Now we are witnessing the transition to a new level of consciousness that comes with new issues and challenges. Thus, we need new social institutions to deal with these challenges. My version of a new social institution is called the tribe.
Stage I: Natural Man
The defining characteristic of the natural man, like all animals, is fitness. Fitness represents genetic adaptation to an environment, and it is propagated via sexual reproduction. The family is the defining social institution that provides structure for sexual reproduction.
Stage II: Cultural Man
The defining characteristic of the cultural man is skill. Skill represents the application of cultural learning, and is propagated through various forms of education. A person can be strong, fast, good looking, and intelligent, but without the application of culturally learned skills they won’t get very far (like a basketball player who can’t dribble, pass or shoot).
In today's world, we apply our skill in the context of our jobs, so the company is the defining social institution that provides structure for the application of skill.
Stage III: Moral Man
The defining characteristic of the moral man is virtue. Virtue emerges when human beings become individually responsible for complex decisions that extend beyond the mere application of skill. In the basketball example, being hard-working and a team player are virtues that enable a person to refine their skills and apply them in a changing environment.
Without virtue, skill either stagnates, decays, or is applied in a destructive way. The defining social institution that structures our virtue is the church.
Stage IV: Modern Man
The defining characteristic of the modern man is status, and in particular, striving for status. Ancient societies had fairly rigid social castes, but a modern person believes that all men are created equal and are responsible for achieving status as an individual. In other words, we need ambition.
The defining social institution that structures and provides scope for our ambition is the nation. We might achieve status via other institutions, but only with the development of a modern nation in which people are viewed as equal citizens can we vie with each other to achieve upward mobility.
Stage V: Post-Modern Man
The defining characteristic of the post modern man is purpose. One of the major achievements of post-modern philosophy was the idea that we can reject the status hierarchy. With the counter-cultural revolutions of the late 60’s and 70’s, saying no became mainstream. But with this ability to say no comes a responsibility to provide something in place of the existing social arrangements.
The hippie generation tried to reject the hierarchy and tried to build some new social structures (communes, etc), by and large the experiments failed and they went back to work in the existing institutions with renewed zeal. But counter culture changed the world forever and we can’t really go back.
Now Millenials struggle with an increased level of consciousness that tells them fitness, skill, virtue and status are not enough. They need something else, something that integrates and guides all of these other aspects of consciousness. This is what I am calling purpose.
People feel responsible for the culture and society we live in. One outlet for this feeling of responsibility is politics. But I question whether politics will ultimately emerge as the defining institution that provides scope for our growing sense of (or lack of) purpose.
My main complaint about politics is that my vote doesn’t really matter that much. The nation is simply too big for me to take responsibility for. Perhaps the nation needs to be big to provide scope for ambition and status. But I think purpose is a bit more personal than status.
Thus, more and more I see people trying to develop what I call a conscious community. Perhaps the most important role of the conscious community is to provide a focal point for our sense of purpose. Within a conscious community, we become responsible for each other, and I believe that embracing this responsibility is what will satisfy our need for purpose. But if the community is too large, the sense of individual responsibility becomes too fragile.
I have used the term tribe to describe a particular variant of conscious community that I am trying to conceptualize. For me, the term tribe implies a reverence for an ancient way of life based on the family. It also implies a community below the Dunbar limit, where our conscious choices can actually have a big impact on the structure of the group.
Thus, a tribe is a form of conscious community that incorporates the other foundational institutions (family, company, church and nation) on a personal level. A tribe is a conservative organization (relative to other post-modern alternatives) that seeks to preserve and build on our existing social institutions instead of just replacing them with something like an all-encompassing commune.
So, to recap:
- a tribe is a post-modern institution that seeks to provide human beings with a scope for our sense of purpose once we have developed a conscious sense of responsibility for the structure of the society in which we live
- tribe-building is an alternative to political activism in the sense that it assumes our primary social responsibility should fall within a sub-Dunbar social group
- a tribe is also an alternative to a commune in the sense that it does not reject earlier social institutions but seeks to integrate them and build on them
