Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
by Sebastian Junger
July 26, 2020 [1:40 PM — 8:25 PM]
Los Angeles, CA
The book goes over how we interact as communities and presents that in context of tribal groups and military units, it makes me miss my community, the Egyptians of the Gulf, known as the Gharbis or the Wafideen. Being part of a community or very specific identity is the willingness to go the extra mile to take care of someone even if it means sacrificing your own self to make sure they’re doing well, that is the essence of the strength of these social bonds within the individuals. The books also present how we consider ourselves to be “developed” in very ironic and contradictory ways, with being more developed and no longer being “tribal” shows how humans are now living more uncomfortably, with a less relaxed lifestyle to continue living well in this “developed” atmosphere (this concept was mentioned in Sapiens) and how we have improved and developed our medicine but have linearly developed an atmosphere that is leading to mental diseases rising.
On page 22, I found an interesting paragraph talking about Mexicans in the United States vs. Mexicans in Mexico, and I underlined how this related so much to my mega-group of Egyptians, so I’ll make it clear here: Egyptians born or living in the Gulf region are wealthier than Egyptians born or living in Egypt but far more likely to suffer from depression and other mental disorders that impact their social, physical, and economic experiences, starting virtually at birth and never letting up. Surprisingly, it also presents a case how a little violence from the oppressed against the oppressors might be required to make social progress happen, furthermore how living in an atmosphere full of war sometimes can brignon better mental health only because it gave the members a sense of meaning and forced their involvement in their community.
The book also highlights how during revolts, everyone will come together despite their hatred against each other's differences and do whatever it takes to succeed. The more the oppressor hits us, the more defiant we’ll be, and the more hardships they put on us, the more they’ll unite us.