As humans, we all strive to be part of a group to identify ourselves with an idea, way of life or culture. In the past, we referred to these common groups as tribes — a group of people trying to live together out of a common understanding and need for security against outside dangers. Turns out human nature has not changed very much in the past thousand years. In our modern culture, we still associate ourselves with these tribes. Yet today we have assigned different vocabulary to them such as cliques, clubs and sororities/fraternities.
However, this idea has transferred over into a part of our lives that is proving increasingly dangerous to our society. Speaking in the broadest terms, we now associate with a political party not out of logic, reason or rationale but through cultural ties such as the family, community or religion we were born into.
Furthermore, we have now projected a tribal identity to these political parties by assigning mascots, colors and certain sayings to one party or another.
We find increasingly frivolous ways to associate ourselves with these tribes, even by attaching bumper stickers on our cars to display our political affiliation. Or we feel the need to show our political support for certain companies that agree with our views.
For example, when the CEO of Chick-Fil-A Dan Cathy came out in opposition to same-sex marriage, the fast food chain quickly had long lines of customers showing their support for the company’s political stance.
These patterns of actions have created a culture that sets up personal and social barriers between the two parties. These barriers can be destructive to the flow of ideas in public discussion, and thus only increase widespread public partisanship.
Furthermore, the problem does not just lie in how our society displays their pride for specific political parties, but also how citizens come across in their political affiliations. A general consensus in the political science field is that family background has a large influence on an individual’s political leanings. This should raise concern. This fact suggests that many of our fundamental political beliefs are simply inherited from our parents, not discovered through careful thought and analysis.
As a country we must shy away from our tribal attachment to these political parties and take time to make a logical decision on which party to identify with.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reachedat [email protected]