Our world is becoming dangerously fractured into tribal bubbles and we are losing our sense of a common humanity along the way. As our world becomes more globally connected on a digital level, there is a growing tendency to align with a “tribe” that thinks, dresses, talks and believes in the same things that we do.
Tribes have a tendency to build defensive walls against all those who are not members of the same community. It is then only a small step away to see them as the enemy targeting our watering holes. The divisive narrative on both sides of the political spectrum in the current politics is symptomatic. Extremist leaders whose narrative is threatening the very fabric of societies are being democratically elected. We desperately need such wise leaders as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi , Theodore Roosevelt and Dag Hammarskjöld who were multi-lateral and holistic in their thinking. Their narrative was one of serving a common humanity rather than a political ideology. When wise leaders are at the helm, the rest follow and an immense sense for the common good and higher purpose can result. The western mind has very much lost its way. When there is a spiritual vacuum, loss of purpose and direction, it is fertile ground for demagogues. They fill the void in playing the “angst” game with nationalist or tribal rhetoric. Its us against them! Political ideology has all the trappings of a pseudo-religion. Its black or white. A religious cult has the philosophy of either you believe what we tell you to or you will suffer eternal damnation. An innate spirituality is liberated from belief. It intuitively feels rather than believes itself connected to what is the fabric and the web that holds everything together on a different level. When you live in a tribal bubble you will listen only to those people, and media outlets that share your opinion. You have a fixed belief and it becomes part of the ego and the self. Different opinions, irrefutable evidence and scientific fact are slated as “fake news” because they might threaten the image of a false identity that has been created. If there is no willingness to even listen or to discern between the opinion and the humanity of the other, the inevitable result is confusion about those root cohesive and common values that solidify society. Reino Gevers – Author, Mentor and Consultant https://www.reinogevers.com