I’m currently reading Sebastian Junger’s book, Tribe, and on page 110 he says that the difference between human beings and other primates is that we humans systematically share our food and “altruistic” defense — whatever that is.
According to Junger, “The earliest and most basic definition of community — of tribe — would be the group of people that you would both help feed and help defend.” Now where, exactly, does America lie on that particular spectrum? Apparently, we’ve gots almost no community at all! Apparently national unity is dead in America.
If we are ever going to make America great again then, according to Junger’s criteria we need to include feeding and defending our fellow Americans in that equation. And, boy, is that never gonna happen! Just look at Ferguson, Dallas, Katrina, Baltimore and Philando Castile. Just look at all the cuts to food stamps and attempted cuts to Social Security.
Just look at all the starving and homeless people we Americans pass on the streets of our cities every day. http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/14/dont-call-him-bernie-anymore-the-sanders-sell-out-and-the-clinton-wars-to-come/
Just look at how America spends its wealth “defending” people in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. but doesn’t spend hardly anything defending poor people or Black people or old people who are living right here at home. http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-led-economic-war-not-socialism-tearing-venezuela-apart/218335/
Would anybody in White America feed and defend a Black man or Black woman these days? Or even a Black child? And now our corporate-bought Congress is trying to do away with MediCare, has already foreclosed on our homes and wants to cut Social Security all to Hell too. Face it, guys. Almost no one with any power here in America is going to defend or feed you if you are Black or if you are Old or if you are Poor. Get over it. You are not part of the tribe. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/37851-lost-in-the-military-industrial-complex
Black people get attacked by police. Old people get attacked economically. Poor people are being chased out of town. Only rich people in America seem to belong to a tribe. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45092.htm
Junger goes on to warn us that “Modern society has gravely disrupted the social bonds that have always characterized the human experience.” What? Now Americans aren’t even human either? Apparently not.
PS: On a personal level, who would you yourself feed and defend? How far does your own tribe extend? Would you feed and defend a woman? A child? A senior citizen? How about a Muslim? A Jew? A Black person? An Asian? Someone who lost their job to corporate outsourcing? An American? Any American?
PPS: On a national level, voters in this election cycle are finally stepping up to defend old, Black and poor Americans — finally realizing that they could be next in the corporate cross-hairs.
Remember how traditional conservative Establishment Republican candidates used to fear that angry Tea Party candidates would steal their seats? Well, now traditional conservative Establishment Democrat candidates are starting to fear that grassroots movements like the Bernie Babies are going to steal their corporate-owned seats too.
For instance, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who has sold out to Wall Street and War Street on just about every level, is now being seriously challenged by Tim Canova https://timcanova.com/. And Alan Grayson, a friend of you and me (not Wall Street), has taken on Dem kiss-ass Patrick Murphy — and Grayson has tremendous grassroots support from grateful Americans who still love their country more than $$$. https://senatorwithguts.com/
Establishment (sell-out) Dems, you had better watch your backs too. There are still a lot of us Americans left who can’t be bought out by Wall Street and War Street. Yay!
