Opus 2019-188: New Terms: Going Tribal, part 2 of 2

Tribes.  It was a common social organization.  It existed just about everywhere at some level in cultural development.  Modern civilizations needed to grow past that.

Tribes tend to hate each other.  They usually can’t work together.  The Europeans took advantage of that and would often use one tribe to wear down another before they themselves got in the fight.  It worked time after time.  The Indians could not unite.  A couple of leaders like Tecumseh came close but it never lasted for long.  They never got the point of a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “Gentlemen, we will either hang together or we will hang separately.”

We see the same pattern in Cortez and the Aztec.  One of the silliest things I kept hearing from students was the Cortez conquered the Aztec because he had horses and guns.  Right.  No one who believes that has ever tried to load a black powder rifle or keep a horse healthy.  I have heard the Aztec had a million men under arms.  Cortez had five or six hundred.  No one has ever accused the Aztec warriors of being cowards.  Most of the Spanish were infantry, not mounted knights.  The guns of the day had one shot and then took a minute or two to reload.  Picture 600 Spanish firing and with awesome accuracy hitting 300 of the enemy.  Since they started with 100,000 in this battle that left them 9,700 angry warriors who could have smothered them before they had a chance to reload. 

Cortez won because he had allies.  Those allies were other Indians from other tribes who hated the Aztec.  It was a simple matter of divide and conquer.  After the Aztec were out of the way you could move on to the next most hated group.

Another example of the idea is in ancient Greece.  The Greek city states were always fighting but when the Persians tried to invade they worked together and stopped the Persians cold.  They did it on land and at sea.  It worked as long as they stood together.

So the Progressives want us to start thinking tribal.  They don’t care what tribe you are identifying with at the moment as long as they can get you to stop thinking like an American.  You know what that means, E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many, one.  If they can get you thinking with your skin color, country of origin, home language, age, favorite type of music or any one of a thousand things then we will once again be 500 nations that can be brought down one at a time.

I for one refuse to give them the satisfaction of “going tribal”.  I prefer to go American.  Until you prove different I will consider you one also.

homo unius libri