There is a popular debate raging around the world these last few years. I say popular from the perspective that it creeps into popular dialogue on a regular basis even though the topic is still being defined and understood in the new context of the internet and cyberspace.
The topic relates to the historical battles between the progression of Nation States to replace City States which wiped out tribalism. Now it is subjective to insinuate that this progression is that natural order of things. It may or may not be. I have no opinion, but I do have a stake. This ordering is more of a historical snap shot of what has been.
The forces of culture and information are rapidly starting to take a leveling aim at this history utilizing the internet as a gattling gun. It has been lamented in the book The World is Flat that the internet flattens society and allows people of different cultures to move away from their historical home place and live in an area far removed by distance yet retaining a connection via the internet to their people. This is a great thing for people that have moved to keep in touch with their history, their culture and their roots.
It is also a factor that runs contrary to the recent history of the world, which led people to wander, explorer, conquer and build nations. People used to move away from their homeland and they were forced to break some of their ties to and build fresh new ones. This forced cultures to assimilate and in good scenarios they adopted some of the best practices of new cultures and kept or shared the best practices from their own cultures.
The End of Assimilation?
Now people are moving, but they are no longer forced to assimilate. Its good that they can maintain a connection to their homeland, however it also means that they do not benefit from the cultures they merge into and the cultures that receive them do not benefit either. This creates a tribal flow of nomadic peoples from one culture into and dispersed amongst another.
From a human evolution perspective, they stop becoming, they stop compromising and they start pushing back against the culture they find themselves immersed into because they have the tribal support of their own culture backing them up through an internet connection.
Historically, Nation States have failed to emerge and grow in areas that were infused with tribal systems that could not be conquered, assimilated, or moved. The establishment of a nation state was a brutal force. The end result was often an extreme level of advancement for the new nation and for the world. However, to do it over again, people would be very hard pressed to look forward with hindsight and say that the end justified the means.
In the Americas entire tribal cultures were wiped out through wars and diseases and forced relocations. Africa and the Middle East have undergone similar episodes repeatedly throughout their histories. Even Europe and Asia have felt the impact of this phenomena from the Scottish Highlands to the Russian steppes to the Great Wall of China.
Paper, Scissors, Rock -> Nation State, City State, Tribalism
Its like a historical game of paper, scissors and rock. A city state will beat a tribe and encapsulate it taking it over and providing the benefits of commerce. A nation state will bring together multiple city states and form a nation often built up with an assimilated or assimilating culture and usually on the remnants of the remains of the tribal systems buried below the cities. The Catch 22 is that a Nation State can not fight well against a tribal system, or a Tribal system can wreak havoc on a nation state splitting the country into multiple factions and bringing about a civil war or complete chaos.
Recent history has provided examples of this in Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia and even in Russia. Now, most recently we see things playing out in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and Israel. Countries that fail to assimilate cultures and create an environment where those cultures benefit from assimilation run at a great risk of suffering from a break down. The former USSR came very close to succeeding in assimilation by force, and they almost proved the exception to the rule.
Internet Advertising - Tribal Forces
Companies like Google and Yahoo! find themselves being used by all of the groups involved in this political and physical warfare. Their technologies enable people to stay in touch and shun assimilation. This could be one of the reasons why modern day China views the internet like a viper slithering under a baby crib. China has a population of many different groups, city states and tribes. Like the former USSR the people of China were forced to assimilate for over fifty years. Now China is trying to reform not just to stay ahead of the economic curve and to battle the United States and Europe in trade wars. China is attempting to convert to an incentivized assimilation process where people will want to assimilate to get ahead.
Technologies that slow down assimilation or encourage people to retain their tribal identities in historical terms might sow the seeds for dissent and rebellion. This may or may not be the case, but they definitely empower groups of people across a wide geographic area to share their ideas and join forces. China thwarts the openness of the internet to prevent this tribalism in order to survive and keep from breaking apart much as the Soviet Union splintered.
Recently, I read about an author whose book was banded from Amazon and whose advertising was banded from Google Adwords and from Yahoo! well. The author, Obadiah Shoher writes a blog Samson Blinded, and a book called Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict.
I make no statements of agreeing nor with disagreeing with the books nor the blogs. However, I can see that in the blogs Obadiah (which is a pen name) advocates the removal of Palestinians from Israel. He is advocating the removal of a tribe from Israel to Jordan. This has proven to be a very controversial and provocative topic, one that Google and Yahoo! and Amazon chose not to touch, despite the fact that their technologies have helped create the foundation under which a significant amount of turmoil has flourished throughout the world.
Now, this is not a new concept. In fact it has been debated since before the creation of Israel. There are also many Palestinians that have proposed the same cure but in reverse; the removal of Jewish peoples from Israel has been a goal of Palestinians for many more years than I have been alive.
Both tribes realize that they cannot live peacefully together. Both tribes realize that they cannot assimilate given the current state of things. There is no physical force than can force either side to assimilate and the economic motivation for assimilation has been replaced with the spark of terrorism, which reduces peoples from both tribes. It forces them to fight for survival and prevents them from moving towards higher needs of their civilization.
Iraqis and Empire
Iraq is similarly spiraling out of control due to the manipulations of tribal systems in the area. These tribal systems like in Israel are being fueled with a removal of economic incentive on one side of the fulcrum and an infusion of religious incentive and retribution on the other side of the fulcrum. The fulcrum itself is proving to be a wedge that is splitting the Nation State of Iraq into fragments of kindling and we can even see the slow emergence or resurgence of individual city states throughout the country fighting against the tribal infusion.
The United States has failed to win the peace in Iraq for the last three years. President Bush attempted to launch a war on a morale mandate even though he seemed to be hiding behind the real motive, which was purely economic - OIL. The moral mandate made it seem evil to take Iraqi oil and use it for any purpose including Iraqi purposes. This coupled with the breakdown of Iraqi infrastructure created an incentive power void. People had no economic incentive to assimilate, come together and rebuild Iraq.
Instead they found themselves isolated and left to fend for themselves, striking or reverting to tribal allegiances and religious ties. The key to Iraq is the oil. If the oil flows, the world will calm down and Iraq will build the financial capital it requires to calm its people and begin to envision a peaceful future.
The key to Israel is intellectual property. If the intellectual property can begin to build with both sides racing to contribute, the Palestinians and Israeli's can find a future together.
If these two solutions can not be achieved, then the tribes will need to be separated and separation requires brute force. There is no other way. My hope is that the keys will be employed and that brute force can be spared for the benefit of the entire world as well as the people in the region.
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