Oh No! The World is Out to Get You!
"What's Wrong with You?", Part 1
When was the last time you sat and listened to someone talk, and as they went on (and on, and on) you thought in the back of your mind, “OMG! What's wrong with you??”
Whatever it was they were saying, it just grated on you like nails on a chalkboard. They were so out of touch with reality that you struggled to wrap your brain around it. Maybe, what they said was even so offensive it made you angry.
How many people do you know like this? Let me guess, quite a few, right? And I suspect these are people you don't want to be around if you can avoid it. Whenever they show up in the room, you are ready to skedaddle.
Ultimately, the main thing these people do for you is trigger this negative, visceral reaction.
Pay attention to that negative reaction. That's your body signaling to you that they are a threat.
Postmodern culture is experiencing a meaning crisis.
Why have we lost sight of Meaning?
Is there any hope of getting it back?
Better yet, is the loss of Meaning really a bad thing?
If you long for a path forward, Drinking from an Empty Glass: Living Out of a Meaningless Spirituality is the book you’re looking for.
Evolution, survival, and you
Last month I talked about how sin was a mythological diagnosis assessed by ancient humans to understand the human condition, with an emphasis on "Why can't we all get along?” I also made the case for moving beyond mythological diagnoses when they are weaponized and cause harm.
In cases like that, it's simply time to get with the times.
The best current framework we have to understand the human condition is evolution and science. Through evolutionary sciences, we know that humans are wired to survive. And thanks to this wiring, we are still around today.
Perhaps the most valuable way humans adapted in order to survive was to start gathering in groups. Groups have a much better chance for survival than individuals. In the long-lost past, this led to the formation of tribes. Safety in numbers. The more people in your tribe, the greater your chances for survival.
What did human communities need in order to thrive? Resources. And, the more people in their tribe, the more access to resources they needed.
Enter the quest for dominance and conquest.
Tribal identity
In this context, tribal identity became incredibly important. Remember, it's all about survival. You needed to know who was safe and who wasn’t.
Tribal identity gave you that information. Members of your tribe were safe, and those on the outside were not. Tribal identity, then, is an evolutionary mechanism for survival.
The us-not-them categories inherent in the structure serves two functions. First, members of a tribe identified and bonded with each other. Second, members of a tribe would naturally be wary of outsiders. Those on the inside of the tribe became extensions of me, and those on the outside of the tribe became “other”.
Is this a good thing?
There are progressives out there who argue that this divisive dynamic inherent in tribal identity is a bad thing. I understand where they're coming from. And, they’re not entirely wrong. Since tribes are about identity, anytime you separate your identity from another, you open the door to dehumanization.
But I also think that the call to eradicate tribal boundaries is a mistake. Developing a tribal identity is not just a natural part of human development but a necessary part of human development.
The problem isn't the formation of tribal identities. Tribal identities help us to understand ourselves better by recognizing who we are not. This leads to greater self-awareness. It can also lead to an appreciation of otherness as we engage with others in creative ways. Developing a healthy tribal identity is a good thing.
And, the keyword here is “healthy”.
The danger of tribalism
When tribal identities become unhealthy they become a form of “tribalism”. When you fall into a tribalistic mentality, you cease to engage with an outsider creatively and instead pursue a path of othering.
The act of othering is an attempt to separate and insulate oneself from another in a dehumanizing way. Rather than creative engagement, the turn is toward dehumanizing disengagement. Tribalism takes an us-not-them dynamic that is potentially creative and turns it into an us-vs-them conflict.
When we fall into a tribalistic mentality, it truly is “you (and your people) against the world”. The only way you can ever truly feel safe while living in this mindset is to acquire power and dominate your neighbors. This takes us down the path of evil.
From “the problem of sin” to “the problem of unhealthy”
So, “What's wrong with you?”
Traditionally, the answer is “sin”. But it's time to move beyond that outdated framework and use a framework more appropriate for our understanding of the human condition today.
Here's the underlying evolutionary issue: you are wired to survive. And thank goodness you are, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Our evolution has shaped us into what we are today as a species.
It's important to note that we are not equating the evolutionary drive to survive with a sinful human condition. This evolutionary drive to survive is both a blessing and a curse.
Perhaps this interplay between blessing and curse is most fully revealed in the dipolar dynamic between tribal identity and tribalism.
Once we understand this evolutionary dynamic, we can come to grips with “what's wrong with us” and start to work on better solutions for the problem. Our problem isn't sin. It's unhealthy patterns and behaviors.
Next week, I want to start diving into those unhealthy patterns and behaviors. Let’s look at where they come from, how they do harm, and what we can do to replace them with healthy ones.
I hope you will join me on this journey.
Peace, Bo
www.evolvingchristianfaith.net
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Credits
Thanks to Leonardo.AI for the cover art
Thank you very much!
Excellent essay. Very informative and helpful.