http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/2007/RAND_WR433.pdf
It's 102 frickin pages with a useless preface. Anyone care to read it and report?
Daddy's Invisible House
iFAQ
I will do bananas.
Asteroids
Youtube Videos
Deleted Posts Today (∞)
The real future is going to look a lot less like the Enterprise and a lot more like the Borg.
The New Tribalism
son of parnas July 14th, 2007 9:12pm
It's about the progressive delocalization of the monkeysphere.
Aaron July 14th, 2007 9:19pm
The nation-state as an institution will decline in the 21st century as people revert to tribalism.
They think that the new tribes will be networked via the Internet however, even though they will degenerate into chucking spears at each other. Kinda like CoT.
They think that the new tribes will be networked via the Internet however, even though they will degenerate into chucking spears at each other. Kinda like CoT.
Colm July 14th, 2007 10:14pm
Which is why I'm working on building my posse *now*, Colm. That ClaimID invite is part of it. ;)
Aaron July 14th, 2007 10:17pm
That won't stop me from spearing you.
Colm July 14th, 2007 10:20pm
Well, I'd hope that you'd at least band together with me when a foreign tribe makes an incursion into our general territory.
Aaron July 14th, 2007 10:24pm
You guys have been reading too much Neal Stephenson (Diamond Age/A young ladies illustrated primer).
July 14th, 2007 10:55pm
Au contraire, the RAND corporation has been reading too much Neal Stephenson.
Colm July 14th, 2007 11:07pm
The blah battalion has entered!!!
Mobilize your homonyms. To your posts, everyone.
Mobilize your homonyms. To your posts, everyone.
coterie commander July 14th, 2007 11:27pm
I liked that book. Thanks for reminding me of it. It's in a box somewhere, like 95% of my stuff right now.
Aaron July 15th, 2007 12:26am
So, who gets kicked off the island?
Live minimialsist arron. throw those boxes away. boxes of books you've already read? who needs 'em!
rocco July 15th, 2007 10:53am
Not gonna happen, sorry.
Aaron July 15th, 2007 11:58am
Buzzword: TIMN.
>Four forms of organization—and evidently only four—lie behind the governance and evolution of all societies across the ages:
• The tribal (T) form was the first to emerge and mature, beginning thousands of years ago. Its main dynamic is kinship, which gives people a distinct sense of identity and belonging—the basic elements of culture, as manifested still today in matters ranging from nationalism to fan clubs.
• The institutional (I) form was the second to emerge. Emphasizing hierarchy, it led to the development of the state and the military, as epitomized initially by the Roman Empire, not to mention the Catholic papacy and other corporate enterprises.
• The market (M) form, the third form of organization to take hold, enables people to excel at openly competitive, free, and fair economic exchanges. Although present in ancient times, it did not gain sway until the 19th century, at first mainly in England.
• The network (N) form, the fourth to mature, serves to connect dispersed groups and individuals so that they may coordinate and act conjointly. Enabled by the digital information-technology revolution, this form is only now coming into its own, so far strengthening civil society more than other realms.
>Each of the four forms, writ large, embodies a distinctive set of structures, beliefs, and dynamics (with bright and dark sides) about how a society should be organized— about who gets to achieve what, why, and how. Each involves different standards about how people should treat each other. (p1)
Presumably the author claims some sort of natural progression (like Marx claimed) that inevitably moves a nation towards TIMN. Like in the game Civilization, you'll have to "discover" each "technology" as you move from T to TI to TIM to TIMN.
Nationalism is tribalism writ large. It won't go away, and appears to be the fall-back for societies, sometimes getting displayed in minor ways like sports fans. Sometimes it resurfaces as "the old boy network" or like the way that aristocrats pretended that they were somehow special and different from the unwashed masses. Or in the way that teens all ape each other in a collective urge to "be different" while imitating each other ruthlessly.
>The tribal form started out being about blood kinship. But as societies grew larger and more complex—and thus less about kin, and more about rulers and ruled and about how to oblige kin to get along with nonkin—new principles were needed to hold societies together. (p 59)
Gangs are another version of the fall-back-to-tribalism. The members they recruit see that they don't have a future in modern society, so they create their own kin-type arrangement of mutual assistance. The author also claims that this is what Yugoslavia devolved into, and that the other Slavic states, Russia notably.
>In such places, people have fought less to create professional nation-states than to promote deep-rooted clannish cultures—to try to impose what might be called clan-states. Also, in Russia, numerous criminal gangs based on family and ethnic ties surfaced after the collapse of the Soviet state. And across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, Islamic fundamentalism has exacerbated tribalism (McCallister, 2005; Ronfeldt, 2005b). Indeed, all across history, wounded nations, as they seek to recover lost strength and glory, have shown a propensity for pernicious tribalism (and for fascism). (p63)
The cultures/groups/societies that feel more and more cut out of the global marketplace, and pushed towards the margins, will devolve into tribalism as a survival mechanism. They can die, or live, but to live means that they must reject the cultural imperialists. Trying to make everyone into "modern consumers" is doomed to failure, and OBL/AlNeda are just one more spear-point of the counterrevolution.
>Four forms of organization—and evidently only four—lie behind the governance and evolution of all societies across the ages:
• The tribal (T) form was the first to emerge and mature, beginning thousands of years ago. Its main dynamic is kinship, which gives people a distinct sense of identity and belonging—the basic elements of culture, as manifested still today in matters ranging from nationalism to fan clubs.
• The institutional (I) form was the second to emerge. Emphasizing hierarchy, it led to the development of the state and the military, as epitomized initially by the Roman Empire, not to mention the Catholic papacy and other corporate enterprises.
• The market (M) form, the third form of organization to take hold, enables people to excel at openly competitive, free, and fair economic exchanges. Although present in ancient times, it did not gain sway until the 19th century, at first mainly in England.
• The network (N) form, the fourth to mature, serves to connect dispersed groups and individuals so that they may coordinate and act conjointly. Enabled by the digital information-technology revolution, this form is only now coming into its own, so far strengthening civil society more than other realms.
>Each of the four forms, writ large, embodies a distinctive set of structures, beliefs, and dynamics (with bright and dark sides) about how a society should be organized— about who gets to achieve what, why, and how. Each involves different standards about how people should treat each other. (p1)
Presumably the author claims some sort of natural progression (like Marx claimed) that inevitably moves a nation towards TIMN. Like in the game Civilization, you'll have to "discover" each "technology" as you move from T to TI to TIM to TIMN.
Nationalism is tribalism writ large. It won't go away, and appears to be the fall-back for societies, sometimes getting displayed in minor ways like sports fans. Sometimes it resurfaces as "the old boy network" or like the way that aristocrats pretended that they were somehow special and different from the unwashed masses. Or in the way that teens all ape each other in a collective urge to "be different" while imitating each other ruthlessly.
>The tribal form started out being about blood kinship. But as societies grew larger and more complex—and thus less about kin, and more about rulers and ruled and about how to oblige kin to get along with nonkin—new principles were needed to hold societies together. (p 59)
Gangs are another version of the fall-back-to-tribalism. The members they recruit see that they don't have a future in modern society, so they create their own kin-type arrangement of mutual assistance. The author also claims that this is what Yugoslavia devolved into, and that the other Slavic states, Russia notably.
>In such places, people have fought less to create professional nation-states than to promote deep-rooted clannish cultures—to try to impose what might be called clan-states. Also, in Russia, numerous criminal gangs based on family and ethnic ties surfaced after the collapse of the Soviet state. And across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, Islamic fundamentalism has exacerbated tribalism (McCallister, 2005; Ronfeldt, 2005b). Indeed, all across history, wounded nations, as they seek to recover lost strength and glory, have shown a propensity for pernicious tribalism (and for fascism). (p63)
The cultures/groups/societies that feel more and more cut out of the global marketplace, and pushed towards the margins, will devolve into tribalism as a survival mechanism. They can die, or live, but to live means that they must reject the cultural imperialists. Trying to make everyone into "modern consumers" is doomed to failure, and OBL/AlNeda are just one more spear-point of the counterrevolution.
Peter July 15th, 2007 1:53pm
Other topics: July, 2007