The topic of tribes seemed to be coming from a number of directions this morning.
Philosopher friend Mac Campbell writes: “What is all this jargon is part of a deliberate attempt to set up a safe life-world to escape into like a kind of cubby house with your mates some place safe where you’ll feel accepted. These strings of high-sounding woolly-words set up a private vocab a private grammar a private lingo a private life-world. Then if things get uncomfortable in the big bad life-world you can find refuge in a tribal world of woolly-words.”
The concept of tribe caught my attention. It describes something observable locally – lots of little “tribes”. People clustering loyally within their small tribe whether it be a local church sports club school or craft group.
As humans we seem to need that comfort. None of these groups are very big – 12 people to 120 people might define it.
What happens beyond this tribal clustering?
Are we able to transcend our tribes and also identify as part of our whole local community?
Are we able to cooperate and work together? The answer appears to be “Yes and No”.
Examples of the “Yes” would be Golden Valley Keperra Lions having a food stall at the St Andrew’s School Fair. Another example would be the Ecumenical Service at St William’s Church with the All Saints Anglican Church. Or the way the Arana Leagues Club works with so many local groups. Or Radio YYY 87.6FM helping the Arana Writers Group out with recording their Arana Anthology to CD. Or the Patricks Rd P&C working so closely with the new Hills District Community Garden Inc.
Examples of the “No” would be where we have a local church (no names but there is at least one specifically) who regards others as damned to hell because they don’t happen to share their exact belief or baptism rites. Or where we regard whole sections of the community as people we leave out isolate or bad-mouth. The “border” between Moreton Bay Regional Council and Brisbane City Council often appears lacking in clear processes for cooperation across it to ensure that our upper Kedron Brook valley community is brought together not divided or excluded.