Mine Is Better Than Yours

Since the dawn of human existence—when Homo habilis first created and used the original Stanley claw hammer—our primary social drive has been steered by one thing, and one thing only:

Tribalism.
Pure, prehistoric, perpetual tribalism.

Let me explain. It started out relatively simple: The people around me from birth? That's my tribe. The people over there? I don't know them, they have pointy sticks—kill them.

This very simple mentality has stayed with us for millennia, even as our social and economic structures evolved around it. Today, it’s: Which street, in which neighborhood, in which community, in which county, in which compass direction, in which country, on which continent do you belong to?

But not only that—Which interpretation of which holy book, of which denomination, of which religion? Which team, in which sport, from which culture? Which artist, of which genre, do you like?

Let’s not even mention the obvious...

The list has grown exponentially since our plains-wandering days.

What hasn’t grown—is us.

We still employ the same psychology, and even the same tactics, as our cave-dwelling cousins—minus the skull-bashing and poison-tipped spear brigades. Violence still becomes commonplace among brothers and sisters who disagree over which group of men (or women) most deserved the shiny bowl for running around a field professionally.

I will say this, though: At least we’ve—for the most part—outgrown the need to eradicate non-believers and non-agree’ers from our cushy communities. We only destroy their characters now.

"Oh, you don’t agree with me? Well then, my tribe says you deserve a bad day at least once a week—or burn and suffer for an eternity."

It is for these reasons that I am completely and wholly convinced: Without a roid-rage version of E.T., or Sigourney Weaver’s chrome-teethed apocalypse lizards - something that hates us all, indiscriminately - humanity will never truly unite. There will always be something to disagree on, something to fight over, something that drives a wedge between what could be a beautiful and awe-inspiring species of innovators and dreamers.

Until that day comes, however...
Blue Bulls suck.