Tribalism: The World on Parade

By Rich Kozlovich

One of the things I never cease to be fascinated with is why so many smart people who write about international affairs miss what I consider the most important component in understanding international affairs, and that is, most of the world has no concept of capitalism or democracy as we know it.  It's just not part of their historical and cultural paradigm.  As a result, when we make economic or political decisions on our concept of how the world should work, and then when those decisions fail to produce the desired results, which is often, then we're shocked they just don't seem to get it.  Imagine that.

After all, we explained it to them didn't we?  Why don't they get it?  Because their cultural and societal structures are antithetical to the very concept of American democracy and American capitalism. 

In Muslim controlled countries democratic institutions are impossible because Islam requires all to obey those at the top, and we have to remember, the real violence is mostly going on in these countries because of two factors, tribalism and Muslim sectarianism.  Right now Christians are being murdered in Islamic nations to the point of genocide, and no one seems to care. 

Millions of Christians in the region have been uprooted from their homes, and many have been killed, kidnapped, imprisoned and discriminated against, the report finds. It also highlights discrimination across south-east Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and in east Asia – often driven by state authoritarianism.

Let’s take as an example of what happened in Libya and Syria.  When you scratch the surface of those who took sides in Libya and Syria what we find are competing tribes fighting the dominant tribe, just as they’ve always done.  These are medieval societies with modern trappings imposing tyranny on those from a different tribe, or different religion, and even different Muslim sects. Capitalism, democracy and the rule of law cannot exist in that kind of political drama.

Aside from its religious veneer, Islam can easily be defined and understood by one wholly a religious word: tribalism — the bane of any democratic or pluralistic society.  The fact is, the entire appeal of Muhammad's call to the Arabs of his time lay in its compatibility with their tribal mores, three in particular: loyalty to one's tribe, enmity for other tribes, and raids on the latter to enrich and empower the former.............the tribe was what humanity is to modern people: to be part of it was to be treated humanely; to be outside it was to be treated inhumanely.  This is no exaggeration.................Muslims were to become "friends one to the other to the exclusion of outsiders."

Hence, the umma — an Arabic word etymologically connected to the word "mother" and which signifies the Islamic "Super-Tribe" that transcends racial, national, and linguistic barriers — was born, and its natural enemy remained everyone outside it..........the Islamic umma in one tent and the dehumanized tribes of the world in another — Muslims were exhorted to attack and subjugate all these "infidels" in order to make their Super-Tribe supreme............

The goal of Islam was to create "one tribe" predicated on religion, and it failed, except for creating the violence and destructiveness of jihad that prevails throughout Islam.   They view them as inferiors to be exploited. In the Muslim world these leaders and their governments are nothing more than tribal societies with one tribe in charge. Many times made up of one of the sects of Islam, and consider the other sects, who may be members of other tribes, as infidels, and can subsequently exploited, even murdered without consequence. 

In most African countries it really is all about tribes.  It isn’t about capitalism versus socialism, it’s about tribal culture and tribal dominance, including South Africa.  White South Africa was at one time was one of the world’s most stable economies.  It’s now a third world nation due to the black South African leaders thinking that had been molded by the socialists of the ANC, and now they are a third world country needing financial aid. 

First we need to understand that "tribalism" is foundational to the human condition.  We have an internal emotional, psychological and intellectual need to belong.  Take the passion we display in sports.  It's a them against us mentality, and often times, around the world it breaks into violence.  A war actually broke out in South America over a soccer game.  The game was the trigger, but the explosion was actually caused by underlying issues involving national interests.  National interests are a form of tribalism.   The need to belong, it's the us against them gene in action.

Tribalism as I've defined it can take the form of politics or religion.  Socialism is a form of tribalism. Islam is a socialist concept in its practical application.  Those at the top make all the rules and everyone else obeys.....or else!   Until all that changes, it doesn’t matter what outsiders do.  They will always be a mess, and that prevents solid long term investments that are beneficial to these societies from anyone - inside or outside of Africa, or the Middle East. 

As for those on the outside:  They will merely take advantage of whatever opportunities arise and then walk away when those opportunities end, leaving Africa will less than what they started out with, and it’s the fault of tribal culture mentalities. 

Let’s try and get this once and for all.  Giving these “nations” untold billions and crying a river of tears over their plight won’t change that.....ever!  In fact, it exacerbates the problem since those billions go into the pockets of corrupt petty dictators and their corrupt myrmidons, allowing them to stay in power and abuse those not in power.  Remember, whether it’s in the nations of Africa or the Middle East – if you’re not part of the ruling tribe, you’re not a real citizen.  The dominant tribe treat those of other tribes as a conquering army would treat those conquered.

For some years it’s been obvious the white population of South Africa was going to face genocide. Going back to 2012 in an article by Alex Newman entitled Genocide looms for white farmers  he notes: 

South Africa's black president sings killing songs as thousands massacred...........The eyes of the world were on South Africa two decades ago as the apartheid era came to an end and Western governments helped bring the communist-backed African National Congress to power. However, when Genocide Watch chief Gregory Stanton declare that white South African farmers were facing a genocidal onslaught and that communist forces were taking over the nation, virtually nobody noticed. Few outside of South Africa paid attention either when, earlier this year, the president of South Africa began publicly singing songs advocating the murder of whites.  

What was the response from America’s leftist government under Obama?

“The silence is so deafening that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn’t even publicly mention the problems when she was there last week. Instead, she was busy dancing, pledging billions of dollars and praising the ruling government.”

Here’s how the author describes this outrage:

“Tens of thousands of whites have been murdered throughout South Africa, too, according to estimates……Disemboweled, drowned in boiling water - Many more victims have been savagely tortured, raped, disemboweled, drowned in boiling water or worse. The horrifying evidence is available for the world to see on countless sites throughout the Internet: pictures of brutalized dead women and children – even babies.”

Remember the outrage of the left in America over South Africa’s apartheid policy with what was an unending theme at the time - End Apartheid Now! But where’s the outrage over what can’t be called anything less than white genocide from those on the left who were so concern over “civil rights” in South Africa?

End Apartheid Now! Wasn't that the sign that Bill Cosby demanded the show’s producers put up on the set of The Cosby Show, insisting on it's importance to black Americans, and that every black home would have one, or something of that nature, and the media blasted anyone who disagreed!

Who knows, he might have been right, maybe every black home had one, but I serviced a lot of apartments occupied by black folks in those days and I don’t remember seeing one. There may have been some, but the numbers would have been so small as to not make it a noticeable situation. 

Moving up to 2018 Rick Moran points out the consequences: 

There has never been such a radical government that has taken power in South Africa.  What was promised in the constitution about property rights is in the process of being trashed.  If the murders continue and the government refuses to do anything about them, South Africa will become another economic basket case in Africa.  And the government will have only itself to blame.

That was the prediction and that's what happened.  So much for all the feel good demonstrations and virtue signaling by left wing activists and Hollywood misfits.   Where is the media and Hollywood now! Where are the protestors now? Where is the Federal government now? Where are the embargoes now? Most importantly…..Where are the Nelson Mandela’s and Bishop Desmond Tutu’s demanding justice? Perhaps dancing with Hillary Clinton, who while in South Africa found time to dance but had no time to notice the atrocities against whites in South Africa.

Remembering that South Africa was a country that abolished slavery in 1833 I would like to ask; did the white government of South Africa perform the atrocities that the black South African government is either perpetrating, promoting or allowing to happen now? If so, I don’t remember it on the news of them doing so in main stream media, or from historians.  So I think we can assume those kind of atrocities weren’t normal or ongoing.

We can argue unendingly the correctness of this, but the issue we are dealing with is this. Were the founding Fathers believers and did they subscribe to the idea that the only way this Republic could work was if America continued to be a nation of believers based on the Judaic/Christian principles that with extraordinary rights went with an understood requirement for accepting extraordinary responsibilities. Multiculturalism is antithetical to Americanism. We really need to start seeing the world as it is and the consequences of adopting insane policies. Multiculturalism is based on the mistaken idea that all cultures are equal.  Only the PC crowd wants us to think that all cultures are equal except the American culture.

I have a question. If the American culture is so bad why are so many trying to get here...even illegally...and with the support of those who decry our culture! And if the American culture is so bad why is it Americans aren't flocking to get passports to live in every other country in the world?

The problem with Americans is that we only see their world through binoculars in reverse and in irrational ways. We think because we live the way we do that's the way everyone should live, and everyone should have the same privileges we have, and the result would be the world would be filled with "little Americas" because we will then all think alike and see the world in the same ways, and no one would worry and everyone would be happy.   And this goes to both sides of the philosophical spectrum.

Does anyone really believe Bush’s drive to bring democracy to the Muslim world worked so well? Well, the reality is the minute they had the right to vote they promptly voted in a radical Islamist groups who promptly worked to take away their right to vote. Voting and individual rights are antithetical to the Muslim faith, and what's going on in Afghanistan right now is proof positive of that, and that's the tip of the iceberg. 

What does the word Islam mean?  In Arabic usage, Islam implies “absolute submission, surrender and obedience, that is obeying the injunctions of the ruler without objection.”  No matter what anyone says to the contrary --we need to observe reality-- and that is what goes on in reality.

As for South Africa; they have the same problem that all of Africa has:  Corruption of leadership on a massive scale that is foundational to the African experience. In days before the European colonization of Africa, they were ruled by tyrannical kings. That is their social, intellectual and cultural foundation. They have merely returned to that which is foundational to their societies.

America is unique in the world today and for that matter in all of world history. We really believe we won’t be told what to do, what to eat, what to wear, what we are taught or what we will believe. Why? Because for the first time in human history we were a society created from the bottom up.

Demanding that Africa or the Middle East and other Muslim dominated nations be just like America is irrational, because the rest of the world, filled with very complex societies, often times are without any national standard as to language, religion or societal structure and philosophy.

In 1948, “National Party leaders argued that South Africa did not comprise a single nation, but was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, coloured, and Indian. These groups were split further into thirteen nations or racial federations. White people encompassed the English and Afrikaans language groups; the black populace was divided into ten such groups.”

If there was ever a good reason to abandon this insanity called ‘multiculturalism’ South Africa is a perfect example, but certainly not the only one.  In Ethiopia, Ethnic Violence Endures Despite the Government’s ‘Humanitarian Truce’.  This map appeared in a Stratfor subscription article showing how disconnected these societies are.

 

The French Revolution was such a failure for the very reason that the American Revolution as such a success. Minimal government with every man making his own decisions about life versus the French concept of central planning run by an elite, which promptly started murdering untold numbers that had done nothing to deserve having their heads cut off. There is a reason the current French government is the Fifth Republic and may be on the way to a Sixth. Central planning and all power at the top. 

As for Africa:  As bad as some things were under the colonial powers, it can be argued that it couldn’t have been as bad as it is now. No one in America…at least among normal people…. likes the idea of anyone being declared officially inferior. It's now antithetical to our very concept of existence. However, that's what goes on in much of the rest of the world....... all the time........ especially in Africa and the Middle East and Muslim dominated lands.

They do not view non-members of their "tribe" as equals.