Three Axes as Tribal Rallying Flags

Scott Alexander has an essay post on tribalism. Read the whole thing. An excerpt:

in order to talk about tribes coherently, we need to talk about rallying flags. And that involves admitting that a lot of rallying flags are based on ideologies (which are sometimes wrong), holy books (which are always wrong), nationality (which we can’t define), race (which is racist), and works of art (which some people inconveniently want to enjoy just as normal art without any connotations).

What I call three axes are three rallying flags. Progressives rally around oppressor-oppressed, conservatives rally around civilization-barbarism, and libertarians rally around freedom-coercion. It is important to recognize that the actual belief systems are much more complex than that.

9 thoughts on “Three Axes as Tribal Rallying Flags

  1. ” It is important to recognize that the actual belief systems are much more complex than that.”

    I suspect that Libertarianism and Progressivism are only ‘really complex’ because of the huge number of hand-waving rationalizations needed to accommodate all kinds of popular or pragmatic but unprincipled exceptions to, and compromises of, the core general principle, and deriving from a sense of political expediency.

    Genuine conservatism is unique because of its presumptions in favor of the continuance of existing, evolved, and inherited traditional social arrangements without having to make them all fit nicely into some simplified or coherent ideology, obey some abstract principle, or maximize some kind of essential attribute at the expense of all the others.

    • What is civilization beyond tradition modified by the accumulation of progressive notions sanctioned by time? What is barbarism other than tradition locked into stasis under despotism or its complete revulsion under anarchy? Your personal liberties all brought to you by .. progressives. You’re welcome.

      • I see. Today’s progressives retroactively take credit for the liberties we have, which took shape over centuries, so they feel free to take those liberties away from us now.

  2. “Is there such a thing as conservation of tribalism? Get rid of one tribal identity and people just end up seizing on another? I’m not sure. And anyway, nobody can agree on exactly what the American identity or American tribe is anyway, so any conceivable such identity would ,probably risk alienating a bunch of people. I guess that makes it a moot point. But I still think that deliberately trying to eradicate patriotism is not as good an idea as is generally believed.”

    I share that concern, especially because eradicating one kind of tribalism necessarily involves attacking specific tribes, which is nothing if not a recipe for conflict, in many cases unnecessarily. That said, I still think western countries are too rich and comfortable for a rerun of the English Civil War. Instead what you get is these symbolic attacks where people get the “no platform” treatment on college campuses or safe spaces where those awful outgrouppers aren’t welcome.

    Also, that camp experiment he ,mentions makes me wonder just ,to what extent the boys were being subtly egged on by the adults. Reminded me of the Boyfights videos from Arrested Development. “He’s calling you a liar….hey, hey, keep it in frame!”

  3. Do libertarians really rally? Scott Alexander, who I usually consider very insightful, claimed that libertarians were highly tribal, which I found strange and amusing. To me, tribalism in politics is demonstrated by ideological consistency taking a back seat to, “The team, the team, the team!”. So, Democrats would absolutely be losing their sh**t over drone assassinations (and obviously it’s a natural fit the oppressor/oppressed axis) if Bush were ordering them or over a secretary of state taking foreign contributions if it was a Republican and not Hillary Clinton who had done it. And Republicans were not nearly as bothered by executive orders when Bush was giving them.

    It seems to me that the commitment of Republicans and Democrats to their respective main axes of ideology is *much* weaker than their commitment to the power of their tribe, whereas the opposite is true for libertarians. If all current libertarians recanted and decided trade-restrictions, minimum wage increases, the drug war and government surveillance were awesome after all, then I guess the libertarian ‘tribe’ would be down to just me. But that seems a very odd definition of ‘tribalism’.

    • When libertarians rally, they spend 90% of the time deciding what is libertarian, 10% complaining it isn’t libertarian enough, and the remainder trying to win the election.

      • Perhaps that’s true of the Libertarian Party, but most small-l libertarians despise politics, aren’t Libertarian party members, and have never been to anything like a Libertarian rally.

  4. Doesn’t tribalism explain a lot of has happened with Donald Trump. The core Trump supporter who feels betrayed the Republican establishment and US corporations for pursuing policies they feel hurt them. The Republican establishment is ‘allowing’ immigration and free trade so companies like GE can outsource US citizen jobs. Better yet, after 2012, the Republican Party looked to support illegal immigration amnesty which betrayed the desires of conservative working class white citizens. I see that as the big reason Trump in 2016 (or Ross Perot in 1992) did so well.

Comments are closed.