The Key to Addressing American Tribalism
America’s polarization isn’t easily explained, much to the average politician’s chagrin. As tempting as it is to claim Person A and Person B have irreconcilable differences due to X, there’s a gap between theory and praxis. That isn’t to say that our differences are so complicated they can’t be understood. The truth is, the division of modern America can be intelligibly explained by the liberation-domination dialectic. In a society built on capitalistic freedom, an American’s liberty is an elusive dream or a sinister scheme that can only be found through domination over other Americans. In this way, liberation and domination do not exist in isolation of one another; they are two halves of a whole system that promises revolution or threatens subjugation.
Judith Butler’s Excitable Speech critiques Louis Althusser’s theory of interpellation, arguing that language subjugates us, and it’s through language that we subjugate others. To take it a step further, in Mythologies, Roland Barthes discusses his theory of semiotics, and how language subjugates us through the cultural myths we preserve. The interlocutor wields a mighty sword — one pointed at both ends — first creating and then reflecting reality through a unique subjugation deceptively touted as “autonomy.” The institutional promise of independence has been shaved and sculpted into the idolization of freedom, and it’s within this reconfiguration that we find language at its most dominating. At the impetus of communication, we change the world to reflect what’s been disseminated, be it a statement, a description, a demand or opinion, and in that moment we are interpellated; we are constituted by the cultural myths or ideologies that conceived us.
Similarly, Barthes’ contemporary Herbert Marcuse argued that we are subjugated by the cultural industry, or the societal forces that convince people to think and act in ways that reinforce the splitting of complex ideas and situations into binary positions, aka black and white thinking. Marcuse posited that liberation from this subjectivity can be found in a shifting of class consciousness. If we can be educated in how to critically examine our place in the world (our class, biases, and beliefs), we can be liberated from the hegemonic compulsion to perpetuate the status quo (and for Marcuse the status quo meant Capitalism). Marcuse theorized that one’s interpellation can be significantly impacted by the arts (visual art, writings, music, etc.), as he famously said, “Art doesn’t change the world, but it may change the consciousness of people who can change the world.”
Unfortunately, we cannot avoid our own interpellation and subsequent subjugation. We are crafted from the clay of our family, from the cloth of our surroundings. There is inherent power in parentage, in the preponderant faculty of raising a child under one’s own opinions and values. Those closest to us have the power to change the way we think and feel about the world around us, whether it be through language or the greater cultural industry. We are a product of the products that produced us, and this cycle replicates and affirms itself through birthed tribes of singular thought and focus.
If one’s morality is forged in the same kiln that earned their loyalty, their autonomy — their liberation — becomes no more than an illusion.
“Tribe mentality,” as it’s called today, describes the practice of those with shared ideologies staying loyal to their group no matter the reason or consequence. Loyalty is an admirable quality, but loyalty must be tempered with morality. Additionally, if one’s morality is forged in the same kiln that earned their loyalty, their autonomy — their liberation — becomes no more than an illusion. We are not truly free if our freedom is restricted to an exclusive panoptic interpellation within our tribe. The consequence of tribalism, much like the goal of modern cults, is the transformation of individuals into vacuous drones, where each member’s presence is contingent on the presence of another member, and in combination, this loyal hive ensures the ever-rejuvenating imprisonment within their chosen cultural myth or ideology.
So how can we apply these theories to address the polemic problem of American tribalism? Well, if we recognize the power of immortalized rituals and ideas that promote black and white thinking through language (cultural myths and industry), and we understand how language creates and reflects reality, then we’re forced to accept these theories as working in tandem. So if we want to fix the burned bridges and facebook faux pas that manifest from disagreements in culture-based ideology, we must employ the most archaic and uncomplicated solution imaginable: talking. We must communicate. If we truly want cultural liberation, if we want to break free of the ideological chains we subject one another to, we have to not only understand perspectives unlike our own, we have to understand them so well we could argue for them ourselves if challenged to do so.
Marcuse argued that anger and certain kinds of protests do nothing to solve the problem of cultural domination. He believed that indulging in the metaphorical “scream into the void” is not only self–indulgent, but also a tool of domination in itself. I’m not saying taking to the streets in civil protest is pointless, because that’s categorically untrue, I’m simply voicing Marcuse’s insistence that the only way to solve the problem of polarization is to educate — not scream at — the people who have been confined to a strict, narrow set of principles and customs that perpetuate even when exposed to new experiences. This education isn’t based in history lessons or more life experience; it’s based in teaching people how to find the nuance — the gray — in every idea and situation. The goal is to teach people compassion and empathy, to think outside themselves and their life experience in order to truly understand the state of the world. This way, no matter how many people they encounter that validate their beliefs, they can recognize anecdotal evidence, statistical anomalies, and confirmation bias.
Teach people how to think, not what to think.
Marcuse would also caution liberators not to become the dominators. Those in search of liberating minds shouldn’t be tempted to sway opinions, for liberation only comes with true freedom of mind. We all have opinions and our social media presence will undoubtedly reflect those opinions on a regular basis, but it’s important to recognize our digital voice for what it is: an attempt at domination and a tool of preservation for cultural myths and industry. Mistakes will be made. There will be missteps in the pursuit compassion and understanding, but each moment we step back on the path of liberation, we rejoin with lessons learned which can be put toward the next attempt. The goal is not to lose friends and family to domination — both ours and theirs — but to gain partners in liberation. Teach people how to think, not what to think.
There will be moments in your journey that could be harmful to you or others, and in those moments you should disengaged. In that way, I recognize that my characterization of this problem could be considered over-complicated and over-simplified, and that’s okay. We need to confidently theorize in states of aporia — we have to become more comfortable in our own contradictions and paradoxes. We are the products of a world that far too often operates invisibly. We can’t see the strings that pull us in every direction, which means when we find evidence that supports our theories about a person or population, we must ask why and we must never stop asking. It isn’t enough to find the answer to one question, because every good answer begets another question. We must try to understand everything that led up to a person’s position in the world, for we do not exist in a vacuum and our stories begin before we are born. Perhaps if enough people exercise compassion in this way, compassion for their neighbor, their grandfather, their local public officials and protesters alike, Americans will finally find the kind of freedom this country has promised since its inception.
