Tribe (2017) is a manosphere and self-help book in which author Sebastian Junger highlights the flaws of our modern civilization, which, in his opinion, is making us more comfortable but also unhappy and unfulfilled.

Takeaways

• We all need to belong and connect, but modern societies don’t provide it, and we are all sicker
• Crises bring people to a more tribal and collaborative mindset, and suicides and mental illnesses decrease
• Individualistic societies incentivize behavior against the common good, while egalitarian societies have lower levels of mental illness

Notes

About the Author:
Sebastian Junger holds a Bachelor of Arts in cultural anthropology. He has worked as a journalist and, later, as an author of several books.

The Agricultural Revolution Started Individualism

Sebastian Junger says that the agricultural revolution first and the industrial revolution later changed two fundamental things in the way humans live:

1. Accumulation of personal property allowed people to act more individualistically
2. People live independently from any communal group

The author says that more individualistic choices end up being harmful to the community. And that today people can go a whole day -or a whole life- living among millions without ever feeling part of any community. Basically, being fully alone while being among millions.

And while happiness cannot be measured, mental illnesses can. And modern societies have seen a huge rise in mental illnesses.

Money Brings More Mental Issues

Sebastian Junger says that countries with big income disparities are at a much higher risk of developing mood disorders.

People living in urban areas are also more likely to develop depression and women in the most affluent families were the most likely to experience depression.

A survey among lawyers also found that the most overworked and successful corporate lawyers were less happy than their more chilled public defendant counterparts.

Self-Determination Boosts Happiness

Junger mentions the self-determination theory, which holds that to be happy humans need to feel three things:

1. Competent in what they do
2. Authentic in their life
3. Connected to others

These are intrinsic values that far outweigh extrinsic values such as money and social status. But our society focuses on extrinsic values, says Junger.

Tribal Societies Punished Egocentrism & Enforced Sharing

The author says that tribal and ancient societies punished egocentric individuals who acted against the common good.

“Failure to share” was punished as severely as theft and murder, says the author. But modern society doesn’t have a similar check.
Today, taking from others is simply called “fraud” and not sharing is the norm. He then compares modern executives who would be punished in hunter-gatherer societies.

My Note: The madness of tribal crowds and the rose-tinted glasses
In Tribe there is a description of an old pictorial image of a man struck by several arrows.
The author says that “execution was common in the past towards men who tried to control disproportionate resources”. First of all, I don’t think we can safely assume that was punishment for ‘hogging resources’.
And that image didn’t evoke in me any good feelings of groups caring for their members, but the actual brutal opposite. And it felt like Junger was wearing some truly distorting rose-tinted glasses. As Friedrich Nietzsche said, madness in crowds is the norm. And we shouldn’t be supporting that madness.

Initiation for Males Was a Good Thing

The author says that because our society doesn’t provide initiation for men anymore, men are seeking it in different forms.
They haze on each other, drive too fast, and act recklessly to show that they are ready to be men.

My Note: I don’t think initiation would cure all those ills
I think it’s simplistic to think that an initiation ritual would eliminate all risk-seeking behavior.

TPM Criticism

I enjoyed the book, but there is much, much that I disagree with.

Tribalism Isn’t Freedom, It’s The Opposite

Tribalism relies on coercive and manipulative approaches to keep men beholden to the tribe. What Junger calls ‘less egocentric’ also means less free to be yourself.

Tribe are collectivism over individualism.
And to turn individualists into collectivists, it can turn into physically repressive and mentally restrictive groupthink.

One one hand this may be the victory of the collective. But for our point of view of individual empowerment, this tribalism is the surrender of individual power.
The refuge in the tribe is what the less empowered seek when they feel they need a crutch.

The Misplaced Manosphere Love For Tribes

In a way, “Tribe” echoed the manosphere approach to male tribalism and it reminded me of The Rational Male and, even more, of The Way of Men by Jack Donovan. “The way of men” for Donovan is to band together to defend (and attack) men from other tribes.

I find the “tribal” mentality backward, dangerous, and harmful to all.
It’s not just a male thing, of course.
It’s the same BS that we see in feminist moments. In both cases, it’s the opposite of what civilization, progress, and self-empowerment are about.

No, I don’t think we need more tribalism.
As Robert Greene says in “The Laws of Human Nature“, our only belonging is to the human race. Anything else is backward and way too dangerous.

“Back Then Was Better” Bias

To me, the whole book sounded a bit like the typical rose-tinted view of the past when “things were better”, which is a common bias of naive self-help.

And I also disagree with Junger’s interpretation of the past.
Whenever he criticized modern society for undoing the past, I thought that was a great thing.

No more “initiation” for young men?
Great!
Who wanted to be “initiated” into a culture they didn’t even choose or shape?

No more executions by a hundred arrows against those who made a mistake by “trying to get too much of the shared resources”
Great!
No more crowd madness.

Are we really supposed to miss war?

Sebastian Junger presents statistics and stories to show that people are closer during extremely difficult times such as war.

He quotes individuals who said they were all happier during wars and all closer and more united.  I quote:

I asked Amatasovic if people had ultimately been happier during the war. “We were the happiest” Amatasovic said. And she added “and we laughed more”.

I’ll be highly critical here, but what’s this supposed to mean?
Should we know all want to get back into waging wars (and maybe then Amatasovic can reminisce on when she was younger and more attractive)?

I’m sure the author didn’t mean that wars are good, but it sounded dangerous like putting rose-tinted glasses on some of the most atrocious times of human history.

As my grandmother said about WWII: “may those times never come again”.
I take more responsibility than my grandmother: it’s up to us to ensure civilization moves forward rather than go back with wars.

Anti-Capitalist Sentiment

Junger says that the agricultural revolution allowed people to act more individualistic which, in turn, means acting against the common good.

I strongly reject that idea.
I don’t think that acting individualistically necessarily means acting against the common good.
It’s a complex topic, but capitalism can often -with important exceptions, of course- harness individualistic pursuits to improve everyone’s lives.

Naive Idealism

I found some passages to be idealistically empty.

The author, for example, says that because foraging tribes need to share food for their own survival, they have adopted communal ways of living. When one man tries to take control of the group, other males will stop him. And that, he says, is:

Clearly an ancient and adaptive behavior that tends to keep groups together and equitably cared for

That is reminiscent of the “noble savage” of Rousseau, and to me, it’s always sounded like a naive idealization.

I highly recommend two articles here.
The first is on naive self-help:

And the second that I especially recommend if you’re attracted to this “tribe ethos” is this manifesto of personal empowerment:

PROS

I have been highly critical so far.

Yet, I am glad I have read Sebastian Junger’s Tribe. And I learned a few more things.

• I learned that it’s overseas wars that psychologically harm soldiers the most 

Israelis fighting to defend their homeland -or supposed homeland- had low levels of PTSD. But Americans shipped overseas to fight wars they have no idea about, among troops that have little in common with each other, had higher levels of mental issues.

• Great book to understand people’s need to connect

Tribe is also a great textbook to understand humans as social animals. To understand our need to connect and belong.

Review

Tribe is an interesting book that makes valid points about human nature, and particularly human nature. Where it fails from our point of view is in turning analysis into ideological aspirations.

Junger sees men as part of a tribe with long-lasting traditions to adhere to, while we see empowered men carving the life they prefer as individuals, being bigger than any tribe.

I can agree with its central idea: that modern society is a trade-off.
But who says the tradeoff is negative? This is a society of freedom; there is something for everyone. Even for those who want more communal living.

Self-empowerment is not about joining a gang and being “initiated”, self-empowerment is about becoming your own man and deciding which groups you want to join -if any-.
Again, please read this foundational article on individualism.

Also, read:

• Best red pill/manosphere books
• Best books on masculinity

And if you’re ready to become your own man who’s high in self-sufficiency and who doesn’t need any tribe and can achieve whatever goal he wants, wherever he is, then our training is for you:

Tribe Book Summary: Is Junger's Philosophy Right For Men?

Tribe by Sebastian Junger explains how our tribal instincts are making us all unhappier in our impersonal and individualistic modern societies. I find Tribe to be a great book to understand humans as social animals. But not nearly as good in its interpretation of the data and rose-tinted view of "tribes".

URL: https://thepowermoves.com/tribe-sebastian-junger/

Author: Lucio Buffalmano

Editor's Rating:
2.8