Despite our web-interconnected, frequent-flyer, globalised world, we are still predominantly tribal people. We identify or invent enemies to scrap it out with, and occasionally this tribalism ends in violence. Extreme violence, as we’ve just seen in Oslo.
Tribes were once small groups of families, communities that lived together. People survived and prospered because of their commitment to those groups. Now tribes might be religious, or cultural groups. They might be left wing or right wing, emos or nerds. Footy supporters. Gamers, Nazis, fetishists, gypsies, gun nuts or just plain nutters who’ve found something in common.
We huddle together, sometimes in peaceful solidarity, sometimes with spears raised to the outside world. We use clothing, our words, our beliefs, to signal our membership.
And in some cases the internet is heightening the eternal divide between ‘us’ and ‘them’, giving people any sort of rallying point they need, then the excuses and justifications for any actions in the name of the tribe.
The chilling, bloody, calculated massacre in Norway immediately drew comparisons with September 11, and premature speculators blamed al Qaida before the bodycounts came, and some persisted in blaming Muslims even once it was clear it was a right-wing Christian fundamentalist who carried out this atrocity.
There’s plenty that’s still not clear about the accused, Anders Behring Breivik. The level of organisation of his ‘Knights Templar’, for example, whether he really is a foot soldier for a conservative revolutionary movement, or a lone ‘Crusader’.
But what is clear is that there is a similar evil at work to September 11 and other terrorism acts, which is extremism. Tribalism turned murderous; the idea that one group is superior to but under threat from another, and that threat must be snuffed out by whatever means possible.
For Muslim extremists, the threat is Western imperialism. For Breivik and other right-wing extremists the threat is multiculturalism, and Islam in particular.
Extremism of this sort is a wild and dangerous over-reaction to the perceived threat. The ‘other’ tribe is demonised, their impact exaggerated, the target unjustifiably broadened and their intent misconstrued.
The internet makes it easier than ever before to distort the threat. An extremist can take their twisted minds online and find vast stores of ‘proof’.
They can find stories that confirm their prejudices, and data to dispel any doubt. They can find like-minded tribespeople so they know they’re not alone, they can immerse themselves to a point where their hate is seamless, unassailable.
And then, of course, they can find the means to enact their vengeance on this enemy they have constructed from the megabytes of the world wide web, and they can research the ways to carry out their righteous duty, all the while assisted, comforted, enabled by the solidarity of their tribe.
It’s a huge, complex, disturbing problem. While we can point at Breivik and say ‘there is the villain of the tale’, there are many more Breiviks out there, and bin Ladens.
There are those so desperate to blame multiculturalism that they find their easy answers there; stop new tribes coming. Become isolationist, monocultural, or pick certain groups that just aren’t allowed.
They don’t believe humans can rise above violent tribalism.
Which is rubbish. Obviously most people live, work, and play happily with people from other ‘tribes’. Most people are not engaged in violent warfare with their neighbours just because they look different, sound different, pray differently or eat different food.
So we need to reject the idea that multiculturalism is to blame, and concentrate on these fringe dwelling extremists and how we stop them. There are no easy answers, but we need to stop wasting time asking the wrong questions.
Follow Tory on Twitter @ToryShepherd.
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