A tribe is not inherently a bad thing. Subconscious or not, the division of people into any social, economic, political or religious groupings is quite common, maybe even expected.
The problem with tribes occurs when they become a way of life required to survive, and when that way of life, tribalism, undermines the progress of a nation - when everything becomes about who you know or associate with, how much money you have, which church you go to, who you voted for, etc.
Tribalism is a breeding ground for all forms and degrees of corruption and abuse, from carefree non-disclosure to major cover-ups to mass extortion. It is also a breeding ground for blind or misplaced allegiance, idol worship (of people and money), perpetual ignorance and hatred.
"Deference to leaders and intolerance toward outsiders (and toward 'enemies within') are hallmarks of tribalism," said Benjamin Barber, a well-known political theorist.
What this means, in essence, is that people who always yield to their leaders simply because they are the leaders, and people who are greatly opposed to anyone they see as an outsider, including the people within their own group who don't agree with them, are exhibiting tribalism because they think this way.
And the ultimate effect of this is that these people become more loyal to their political parties, social organizations, churches and other groupings than to their country and their country's survival.
People of the tribal mentality include those who say that they were born and will die PLP, FNM, Anglican, Baptist, Liberal, Conservative, etc. They are the people chanting at political rallies, wheezing fashionably on church television and attending every event where they can get free liquor or free food. They are easily manipulated and cheaply satisfied.
These are also the people who will sell their votes in a general election for a t-shirt, a case of rum, $200, a kitchen appliance or some Christmas meat.
These are the people who will never consider one philosophical principle, through ignorance or disobedience, and can't give you one good reason why they vote the way they do. They make up large numbers of voters in The Bahamas. They are easily led to the well and made to drink.
They are also, unfortunately and more often, the people who are downtrodden, suffering, financially deprived, socially and academically underprivileged, and who will do whatever is asked of or told to them because it is asked or told by a political leader they very nearly worship.
People with a "tribal" mindset are the politicians' dream come true.
But tribalism becomes a tribe itself
And the people who comprise the tribe, because of their disadvantaged way of thinking, will eagerly and gladly give their many votes, for example, to support a leader for decades, all the while still releasing their feces into their backyards and bathing in buckets or under a street tap.
Can anyone say people are wrong for living like this, especially if people who live like this simply have no real choice in the matter? The people who have to live like this are usually the people who don't realize they could possibly have another choice, or that maybe there is a more improved, less demoralizing or better way to live, if only they knew what it was or had a way to get it.
In any event, why should tribalism be a concern if it's so commonplace?
Because, if you are patriotic to your country; if you have any hope for positive, national change; if you want better for yourself or for the disadvantaged among us, you must convince a large number of people, who can't understand or rationalize any concept or choose not to understand, that they are pawns in a recurrent scheme to obtain and retain power.
Any leader in charge of a disadvantaged group of people will always be able to say that she or he did something to make that group of people better, because it really doesn't take much to do that. It doesn't take much at all to convince an uneducated or under-educated man that you have given him more than he had before, when he had nothing before.
Let's be clear; being poor or working class restricts no one from obtaining formal education, but it is universally accepted that persons in a lower socioeconomic status receive less formal education, whether it's because they have to drop out of school to take care of their siblings, children, or parents, or because, they have never known or understood the great value of formal education.
That is not to say that informal education, learning by doing or real world experience, is not valuable, because it always is. But without a formal education, it is easier for someone with a formal education to keep that person without an education oppressed and under the oppressor's command.
Not surprisingly, many people believe that formal education is just another way to distinguish the elite from the ordinary. But it is more than that, even if it is also that.
Formal education teaches a way of thinking that has the potential to uplift the poorest persons out of any difficult circumstances in which they find themselves.
A structured education may have the unintended effect of separating people along the lines of academic achievement, but, when it works as it should, organized education really is an effective and lasting way to escape poverty, as compared to the alternative of waiting for handouts and instructions - a point more greatly emphasized by observing the poorest of our Bahamian communities.
Bahamian politicians, admittedly or not, are in the position of keeping the Bahamian people oppressed and under thumb. They have been educated, which usually gives them some qualification to lead and command and convince their followers. Whether they intend to be or not, these politicians become elite by nature of their political positions, and they have a power that is easily wielded especially over people who don't know better or can't do better for themselves.
Because this political ruling class has the people under thumb, they can, by way of their position in the ruling class, convince their otherwise unaware followers that they are acting in their best interests. Those holding political power have blind supporters who can be easily swayed and who are just desperate enough, just needy enough and unknowledgeable enough to see something that looks like love and concern but is really political opportunity. They make the perfect electorate for a power-hungry politician.
As proved in Bahamian politics, in a general election, the uneducated, emotionally charged voter is more valuable than the highly-educated intellectual who plays around with her or his citizenship right and may or may not vote, depending on how she or he feels intellectually about the voting process, with the latter group not realizing that the end result of not voting proves all their intellectual hypothesizing that their votes would not matter anyway.
Votes will not matter when votes are not exercised.
And if the more easily manipulated people are in the majority, then it makes sense for the politicians to keep them malleable enough to believe they will or can help them, even if they actually don't or can't.
To use a gaming analogy, if you don't play the lottery, you won't ever win it. And no one believes this more than a man with $5 to his name, and nothing more to lose than the chance he will take on being lucky enough to win.
Poor people don't ask a lot of questions. They're very trusting of the hand that feeds them, even if they're fed peanuts, because they have to be. Otherwise, they won't eat.
They don't expect much or more out of life and so they don't ask for much.
They're so depressed, they won't agitate.
And they are usually sufficiently brainwashed into accepting whatever their condition is as their fate, something they can never do anything about, so why not sell their votes for a few hundred dollars when that can buy them food or pay their rent while they pray for deliverance?
The flip side of this status quo, though, is that there does (historically speaking, historically proven) and will come a time when the poor will become so trampled upon and will grow into the distinct majority because their living conditions have become the norm after so much time has passed ignoring them, that they will rise against the political elite at any cost, moving beyond tribalism to barbarism, and using any means necessary to get what they want, including the forcible removal of the people in political charge.
And what will the politicians do then?
o Facebook.com/politiCole.

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