Sebastian Junger’s treatise “Tribe” is must-read material for the multitudes of folks who are recognizing that something in our “civilization” is fundamentally broken; that, to borrow Mountain Guerrilla “John Mosby’s” phrase, “SHIT JUST AIN’T RIGHT.”
I’ll admit that I felt a little initial (and irrational) disappointment in reading this slim volume, because there wasn’t anything especially revelatory to be found. I was looking for some rock-the-world insights, but I’ve already been thinking along these lines for a while and, like most of you, I’m already “there.”
Set that aside. Junger is articulating a message for his broad readership, a mainstream audience, most of whom may not be “there” — yet. They will be. And that’s nothing but good.
“Tribe” starts out on smack in the middle of Frontier Partisans territory, exploring the phenomenon of captivity in early America. Junger lines out the singular fact that a pretty substantial number of white folks ran off to join the Indians, and captives of the tribes — even those who suffered trauma in their taking — very often did not want to be repatriated to their white relations. The opposite was almost never true: Indians who were captured or otherwise brought into white society rejected it and either sought to return to their tribal brethren, or simply pined away.
Clearly there was something in the tribal way of life that was congenial to the soul. We have lost that something, Junger argues, to our great cost.
Social anthropology demonstrates that people react to crisis well — pulling together and breaking down or ignoring social and economic barriers. Junger notes, with myriad examples, that people often feel better in dire circumstances because they feel more connected, more purposeful, more useful. It is the lack of connectedness, lack of purpose, that creates the toxicity of modern or post-modern life.
This book is about why tribal sentiment is such a rare and precious thing in modern society, and how the lack of it has affected us all. It’s about what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty and belonging and the eternal human quest for meaning. It’s about why—for many people—war feels better than peace and hardship can turn out to be a great blessing and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Humans don’t mind duress, in fact they thrive on it. What they mind is not feeling necessary.
During the Blitz in London, admissions to psychiatric wards went down. Imagine: London lost 30,000 people in the bombings. People were less crazy. You’d think the psychiatric casualty rate would go up. It went down.
A substantial portion of “Tribes” addresses the failure to reintegrate combat veterans into society, which, he believes is a key component of post-traumatic stress disorder. In a very real sense, PTSD is a phenomenon of disconnection upon reentry. You might think that Junger is calling for special treatment of the combat veteran, but he actually believes there’s too much of that, and that over-valorization of the veteran is actually harmful. To encapsulate the argument, it comes down, again, to connectedness. In Junger’s view, modern man is disconnected not only from the warriors who fight in his stead, but from every other fundamental aspect of life.
Again, from Task & Purpose:
….there’s a civilian-everything divide. The civilian population is completely cut off from all the means of production that keep it alive…. That’s what happens in a modern society. People are disconnected from the things they depend on. It’s the most outrageous disconnect. I was totally against the Iraq War, and not because I thought it was about oil. But when you have liberals — and I’m a Democratic — but when you have liberals putting “No blood for oil” on a fucking car that runs on oil, the lack of understanding of the connectedness of things is just mind-boggling. So, the divide that we talk about, yeah, it’s between the civilians and the military; it’s also between civilians and everything. I feel like the real conversation is, how do we make modern society more ethically, philosophically, intellectually integrated so that we’re all truly appreciative of the whole damn thing.
There’s the nub of it: “How do we make modern society more ethically, philosophically, intellectually integrated so that we’re all truly appreciative of the whole damn thing?”
“Tribes does more to identify the problem and ask that question than it does to propose “answers.” That’s OK. The question itself is important; indeed, it is potentially revolutionary, because it inevitably leads to another question: Is the Empire capable of becoming more ethically, philosophically, intellectually integrated? And if not, what do those of us who seek a more ethically, philosophically, intellectually integrated way of life do? Answering that fundamental question is up to us.
“Mosby” has his answer, and I have come to believe it:
…surviving the Decline of Empire is not about “saving” the empire, nor is it about “restoring” the empire. It’s about ensuring the survival of those cultural values that made the empire worthwhile in the first place, and the best people to surround yourself with, in order to ensure that, is by looking at the people who you already know share your values. Who is that? Your family, friends, and neighbors.
Reset.
Craig Rullman says
I think this book is tremendously important, and much broader than the way it has been marketed, read, and reviewed. It speaks precisely to Mosby’s point, which you have thoughtfully put in here. I found the images from Sarajevo to be particularly striking, for some reason, and have experienced some level of the same wistfulness about hard times, for the mission they provided and the sense of tribe they inculcated. We are victims of our own success, and the ease with which we generally live. We are out of balance.
JimC says
Reset.
I, too, found the Sarajevo vignettes striking. The punk rockers sharing food and playing music in the basement.
“We were better people then.” Doesn’t get more stark than that.
JimC says
Junger’s comment on “no blood for oil” brought back an incident during the first Gulf War when I was riding down to San Diego to crew for a band. The guitar player trotted out the “no blood for oil” bit, and in the confines of a van on the 405, we got into it pretty heavily. Might as well say “no blood for food.” I pointed out that we were burning a large quantity of petroleum product RIGHT FUCKING NOW to drive from L.A. to San Diego so he could plug in his amp and work — and that whatever he might think of the geopolitics of it, fighting for oil actually makes more sense than fighting for “democracy” or “human rights” or any other abstraction. I doubt I was convincing. Some people cling to the disconnect to feel clean.
Craig Rullman says
The sloganeering in all of this stuff makes me nauseous. There are maybe ten people in the world who can stake out some righteous high ground on any of these issues, and they are probably eating some rare forest animal to extinction.
JimC says
Yep. The high-minded and hip do not wish to inquire too deeply into the environmental and social impacts of the creation of iPhones, for example. The desire for clean hands is delusional and ultimately destructive:
“There’s no such thing as life without bloodshed. I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous.”
— Cormac McCarthy
Matthew says
Well, one thing about the high minded and hip attitude is that it makes one feel good about oneself for little effort. Actually, being a good person is much harder.
JimC says
It is that. And always a work in progress. Moral signaling is cheap and easy, and “cheap and easy” music to most folks’ ears. Not ’round here.
Craig Rullman says
“Moral signaling.” I’ve not heard that before. I like it. Therefore I will now steal it for deployment elsewhere.
Craig Rullman says
‘Mic drop.
Snowgoose says
There was a book published in the early 90s called, I believe, “Captured” by a writer from Texas, who, researching ancestry, came across sparse information about a person in his family who had been captured by Comanches. With that as a springboard he describes several people who had been captured and integrated into Indian life and when released, or offered release, were unable or unwilling to move back into “civilization.” I’ll try to confirm the title and author in the next few days.
Also, as an introduction to his novel “Scarlet Plume,” Frederick Manfred quotes letters from General Henry Sibley to his wife: “One rather handsome woman among them (white captives of the Sioux in the 1862 War in Minnesota) has become so infatuated with the redskin who had taken her for a wife that, although her white husband was still living at some point below and had been in search of her, were it not for her children, she would not leave her red lover.”
“The woman I wrote you of yesterday threatens that if her Indian, who is among those who have been seized, she will shoot those of us who have been instrumental in bringing him to the scaffold, and then go back among the Indians. A pretty specimen of a white woman she is, truly….”
JimC says
I’ll say…
Breaker Morant says
On Over-Valuation of the Veteran. Mark Steyn has written about his dislike of the term “Greatest Generation” because they basicallly did what men had always done (and it lets the modern generation off the hook).
George MacDonald Fraser has written of one his grandmother’s comment to his other grandmother-“Well, the men will be going away again.” She had seen the men coming home from Crimea, lost a brother in the Second Afghan and had typical losses in WW1.
Fraser (a combat veteran of the Burma theater, has also written about how glad he was that they didn’t have to face psychologists after WW2 telling them how screwed up they were. They just went home and got on with life.
I read somewhere that many WW1 veterans detested the typical literature coming out of the war. This was before reading one of your guys-Deneys Reitz-I kept thinking that He certainly didn’t seem to fall into the “Woe is Me” school of WW1.
JimC says
That’s on point, Breaker. As for Reitz, among all the Frontier Partisans I researched, I related to him most and like him best. A thoroughly admirable, unpretentious man, and you’re right — not a so-is-me kinda guy at all.
JimC says
Should note that hunger’s term is over-valorization, not over valuation.
Breaker Morant says
Oops, meant to say that Fraser’s grandmother’s comment was on the outbreak of WW2.
lane batot says
Ha! Amazon JUST “recommended” this book to me, and….I DO want it! But I’ll wait a bit until cheaper, used copies appear. I suppose that isn’t very “tribal” of me, though! Snowgoose–I HAVE that book–I think the title is “The Captured”–EXCELLENT–you should also get the specific books about Herman Lehmann, captured by Apaches(Lipans, I believe, or maybe Kiowa Apaches), then ending up with the Comanches–“Nine Years With The Indians”, and the better, more comprehensive “The Last Captive”(by A. C. Greene). Incidentally, some of MY paternal relatives in Texas were apparently on a search party after the group that took Herman and his brother. They were unsuccessful, of course……The whole desire for tribal connections(deeply instinctive behavior in us, perhaps?) explains the attraction of modern GANGS, as well as those groups that remain stupidly prejudiced towards other groups(racially, religiously, and politically!)–it becomes the extremely attractive “us against them” scenario, which is hard to penetrate or talk sense into. “Clubs” and other organizations fulfill this instinctive(?) need in others. Me, I get plenty of tribal love from living with a large PACK of canines! And, of course, from participating on “Frontier Partisans!!!!!
lane batot says
….Just checked on Amazon(for anyone interested)–“The Captured” is available QUITE cheaply; “Nine Years Among The Indians” is fairly reasonable(I consider it well worth the lower prices it’s listed under), but DAMNATION! “The Last Captive” is stupidly exorbitant! Ah reckon I got me uh-nuther kuhlekterz item in muh library at home! Howsomever, I have noticed books like that becoming more reasonable if one keeps checking back regular–sometimes a cheapo copy will wander into site. And when it does, you better swoop down on it like a foraging Apache, or ittle be GAWN!….
JimC says
Thx for the scouting.
JimC says
Best thing about this internet thang is that we can call far and wide to the “tribe.”
Breaker Morant says
Lane-figured this topic might be in your wheelhouse. Finished “Story Like the Wind” and watched the “Far-Off Place” movie. Obviously, there are differences-but kept coming back to the thought that Reese Witherspoon and her hubby in the movie would have lost their farm to the Zimbabwe land seizures (circa 2,000) which put “Cathy Buckle” in my mind.
If interested Google “Cathy Buckle” as she writes about every 2 weeks about the ongoing situation in Zimbabwe. Ms. Buckle lost her farm in the seizures and has written several books starting with “African Tears” (Highly Recommended) and “More Tears” which chronicle the seizures.
Turning back to the “Tribe” topic. I was struck by the odd characters that Denys Reitz encountered, especially on the long raid to Cape Colony, and remembered thinking that they were straight out of Fantasy novels. Which got me thinking about Boers, Mormons, White Rhodesians, Masai etc. They are examples of “Tribes” straight of of Fantasy novels and (to me) are far more interesting than “Game of Thrones” types Fantasy peoples.
JimC says
Interesting that you bring that up, Breaker. I’ve always felt that the turn of the 20th Century, WWI era could be treated in a GoT fantasy style to great effect. I’ve actually done some work along those lines, though it’s hard right now to devote the time and attention such a project requires.
lane batot says
Glad you got “Story like The Wind” read, BreakerMorant! You’ll like “A Far Off Place” even BETTER! Hard to put that sequel down! As for the Disney-fied movie “A Far Off Place”, well…. When I FIRST saw it, I was MORTIFIED, having deeply loved the two books for decades prior to the filming. BUT…..well, it IS the ONLY movie I know with an actual(very fine!) Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, and a Bushman, and the Kalahari, etc. etc.; so I kept getting copies(VCR, then DVD), until, dangit, I’ve become rather fond of the MOVIE, too! Trying to be empathetic, I thought, “What if I was the director or writer of that movie, being funded(barely, in other words) by Disney, and having to make the story homogenous for the general public, HOW would I have done it? COULD I have done better? And the answer is no, so I sympathize with that poor director, and besides, they used such FINE ridgebacks! to do justice to the books, it would need to be a Cable SERIES, me thinks!! And, dang you Breaker, now I’ll never view the happy Disney ending to the movie quite the same anymore, because of course yer right, being whities, they WOULD have lost the farm!….Also–Cathy Buckle stuff looks really interesting, IF depressing-as-heck. I’ll most definitely be getting some of THOSE books one day! Thanks for the suggestion!
lane batot says
…..And thar must be some a that klektive unkonshuss going around–ONLY LAST NIGHT, while I wuz gittin’ mah grossreez at the Wal-Mart, at long, long last, I FINALLY broke down and got, not just one season, but TWO complete seasons of “Game Of Thrones”! SO MANY people that know me(even slightly) keep telling me I will love that show(?). It has been stupidly expensive(for a peasant like me) up to now, but last night, they were selling both the first two seasons for HALF PRICE!(about $14 bux apiece, which, subtraktin shipping if buyin off’n Amazon, is the cheapest I’ve seen them anywhere!). So at long last I’m about to join THAT tribe!–The “Game Of Thrones” viewers tribe! And you know, interest and discussion about such TV shows and films IS rather tribal in nature, too! So fits right in with this post’s subject! I JUST finished the 3rd season of “Vikings”–dang, I LOVE that series! DEFINETELY ‘tribal”! Ragnar Lothbruck, what a clever fellow(if somewhat ruthless at times!)….
JimC says
Enjoy!
john roberts says
Last night I wrote something very clever and witty on this thread but when I tried to post it I got some sort of rigmarole that told me to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get it on and I didn’t understand a bit of it. Now I’m sober and don’t remember what it was I was trying to post so you guys lost out on some really enlightening stuff.
JimC says
Damn. Caught in the site maintenance grinder. Have a few and try to retrieve it…
Nick S. says
You know that I’m going to be all about Tribe, although “John” expresses it much better than I. Much better with a hammer than a keyboard, that’s me! I grew up, and still live in, a small farming town. Back then it was mostly a tribe with smaller “bands” scattered through it. Now it is getting more “city-ified” with folks that have no connection to here other than owning a house. We’re heading into worse times. Tribe will be more important than ever.
JimC says
Yes, it will, and that requires thought and intent. BTW, Craig picked up all of “Mosby’s” work and is reading them right now.