A sense of belonging is an inherent need. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (per Thoughtco.com – also the source of the featured image), “It also includes our need to feel that we belong to a social group. Importantly, this need encompasses both feeling loved and feeling love towards others.”
Belonging is an important part of the human experience. To be a part of a group, a tribe, a movement, or something larger than one’s self is an inherently human thing. In fact, the lack of belonging has a negative impact on health and well-being. Personal experiences affirm this notion to me. But then why do I posit that belonging has become perverted. And what at all does this have to do with politics.
I have been spending many hours listening to various YouTube videos about one side or another’s political beliefs and in general, I have noticed the rise of tribalism in the United States. Beyond a political party, the sense of identity and belonging in this country has become twisted to the point that the individual is being torn between belonging to one of two main camps: The first believing inherently that the pieces of your identity are the sum of your parts, and the other of the identity you make for yourself. It is eerie how similar, and yet how vastly different these two camps are, but I will attempt to draw distinctions between them as I proceed.
I will preface my analysis with this. As a libertarian (my political party and philosophy of choice), I believe that despite my background and past, my future is determined by my own actions. I struggle with my own issues, choices, and consequences, but the only one responsible for my decisions at the end of the day is me. This view frames my feelings, thoughts, actions, and character. I belong to groups that I enjoy, seek relationships with people I enjoy, and tune out those I don’t care for. I tend to sort the world out into two groups: A-holes and non-A-holes. That belief is transcendent of any other superficial or defining characteristic.
The political spectrum of the United States is at odds, in a cold ideological war with these two encampments, with many stuck in the middle being forced to take sides, with brutal consequences. On the right, you have people who wish to conserve traditional values: heterosexual marriage, individual liberties, the maintenance of the traditional family unit, religious freedom (albeit mainly Judeo-Christian), low taxes, decentralized bureaucracy, and individual responsibility. On the left, the belief in the equality of marriage, social or group liberties, redefinition of the family unit, social support funded through higher taxes, centralized bureaucracy, and group identity and responsibility.
As I try to take these ideas to their extremes, the differences become more profound. On the right, I see a fracturing of that idea into various parts, depending on the emphasis of which value is accentuated. This can range from total anarchy if the emphasis is on a limited government to a religious theocracy if one religion gains power over others. A rise in the term “Alt-right” and the conflation of that particular sect of nationalism and perverted belief in “White supremacy,” is in my opinion wrong, evident online, but wrong. The extreme left believes in the tearing down of current social norms and the establishment of new hierarchies that benefit not the individual, but the group. It is an alluring idea, but as history shows, it ends usually in violence, bloodshed, death, and poverty.
But here’s where belonging is thrust into it. Humans have the need to belong. Secondary to the immediate physiological and safety needs, but still more important than the needs of self-esteem. We as a species want to belong to something larger than ourselves, yearn for the group to be accepting of us, and to know that what we are doing with our lives matters to another person. Having all the things of status don’t matter if you don’t have anyone to show them off to. It would be like a male peacock having no females to show off his plumage to. Since this biological imperative must be met, we can, and do mold our behavior and thoughts to the groups we belong to, sacrificing logic, reason, and independent thought in the attempt to find belonging to a larger group. While I don’t purport to be an expert in psychology, I see in my studies the rise of group think and group identity playing out again in this country as it has played out in countries around the world throughout history.
And the worst of it is yet to come, because those who do not fit into the mold of one side will be lumped into the side of the “other,” cast out from the group, sentenced to identity exile, and left with the conundrum of identity cannibalism to blend into the group, or to find solace with those of the “hated enemy.” The worst part of this is that it seems as though there is no room for any alternative, and that the “you’re either with me or against me” mentality has permeated the political sphere. It has perverted the sense of belonging, weaponizing it against those who dare to have an individual thought or opinion.
I hope that we can find room again for calmer heads to prevail and that we can realize there are more than the two sides being presented in today’s debates. I fear that it won’t, and that this cold ideological war will ultimately heat up.
A Place 4Politics 