(Untitled)

[mankoeponymous]

Once upon a time, for about a million years or so, we were Tribal. (Now we're NOT. Wait.) Tribal meant (and in some places still means) being born into a monoculture; there is one cuisine, there is one kind of music, there is one set of dance moves, there is one set of beliefs, one memeset. And, in most cases, one would live out an entire

Comments

[hobbitkicker]

Yowsers! That was amazing to read! Thanks for posting this. It is very relevant to a lot of processing I have been doing lately. Very timely! Thanks.

[mankoeponymous]

Yay! Hi!

[hobbitkicker]

Hi! :)

I am still processing a lot about tribalism. A long term friendship of mine just terminated because a long standing meme just crashed and burned in the new wind tunnel I have built this year. I am still analyzing the data on this one so many thoughts I have tribalism are half baked and not very coherent. I will say that I am amazed at how powerful the fear of tribal ousting is, took me a long time to see how much it controls us, even to the point of maintaining toxic relationships.

While processing, I think the new meme in my wind tunnel under going tests is trying to get my free will to shut the hell up and get out of the way so I can let creativity just flow and I am just a vessel. The two seem to always be at each other's throats.

[mankoeponymous]

Let's meet up and talk!

[hobbitkicker]

Ok! I will message you on FB.

[dhairya]

I am amazed at how powerful the fear of tribal ousting is, took me a long time to see how much it controls us, even to the point of maintaining toxic relationshipsOne way of looking at this is to take it down to a a very basic and base idea: the fear of resources being taken away from you. Among the things a "tribe" offers is safety and resources. Ousting onself from a social group, even if it is just one person, kicks off one those lovely memes the paleomammilian brain will generate without any connection for your neomammilian brains higher functions of reasoning, justification, abstract thinking, emotional attachments

[mankoeponymous]

Sure, but the funny thing is we still react to the shifting social orders as if the bottom-level Maslow goodies were actually in danger, when at most it's some mid-level needs (mainly Belonging) that might have their supply chains disrupted. After all, the equation of "tribe membership=safety" goes back long before the first hominids, so it's no wonder it still lingers in our software even now that we're so godlike that we fear no predators, eat whatever, wherever and whenever we want, and spawn like bunnies.

Another big reason for staying in shituations is investment. When you've already invested so much in a person (or a car or a slot machine or whatever), it becomes much harder to walk away and admit all that was wasted than it is to convince yourself that "With just a little more investment, maybe I could really make this work." It's just another example of how we let ourselves get trapped by narrative.

[dhairya]

Sure, but the funny thing is we still react to the shifting social orders as if the bottom-level Maslow goodies were actually in danger

That's my point. That's deep in our programming and it has a profound effect on our behaviour.

I agree with you about staying in a situation because investment through, that's also a very powerful lure and it's very easy to make up a mythology surrounding the relationship based off those higher-functioning programs in our brains. I was only proposing that the lower, reactive, survival and needs driven "memes" exist and affect us more than we realize.

[mankoeponymous]

Mos def. "We are angels asleep in the bodies of sheep."

[hobbitkicker]

I am sniffing what you both are stepping in. I know I have learned to be amused at what will trigger my anxiety, like getting on stage can trigger my flight or fight instinct. This is so ridiculous in reality because it isn't like if I fail somehow on stage that the audience will eat me (unless they are zombies), go to my house and burn it down, or rape Ram and kill Hoggle (he is a Maslow need). However, the threat that they could socially ostracize me triggers the fear of ousting and therefore makes being onstage feel like a true danger to my access to resources.

'...it becomes much harder to walk away and admit all that was wasted than it is to convince yourself that "With just a little more investment, maybe I could really make this work." It's just another example of how we let ourselves get trapped by narrative.'

Preach on. This is very relevant to the lessons I am learning from this new wind tunnel design.