Inspiration Station: Tribalism: The Dark Side of Community

Discover the intriguing dynamics of tribalism in our latest podcast episode, where we dive deep into the conundrum of belonging versus the danger of exclusion. Are you ready to uncover the darker sides of the communities we cherish? Join us on this enlightening journey as we explore how our comfort zones could lead to stagnation and division, prompting a need for introspection about the inclusivity of our environments.

In this episode, we tackle the concept of comfort and its potential to inhibit growth. While it may be easy to gravitate toward familiar faces and viewpoints, this tendency can breed complacency and work against the crucial dialogue required for progress. Through engaging storytelling and real-world examples from corporate and educational settings, we illustrate the far-reaching consequences of a tribal mentality stemming from comfort rather than competence.

We also elucidate how tribalism manifests in varied aspects of life, from sports to religion, encouraging listeners to reflect on their communities. Are we inadvertently creating divisions? The episode is packed with thought-provoking questions that challenge you to engage critically with the nature of your personal and communal ties. 

Let’s embark on a transformative journey, aimed at fostering openness to diverse perspectives that enrich our communities rather than divide them. Join us, and be part of the conversation that matters. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share your thoughts!

Hope you enjoyed today's episode! You can find and subscribe to our show on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Theycallmemistayu

Follow us Monday-Thursday on our Youtube, Facebook, IG, Linked In, and X platforms @theycallmemistayu. For audio listeners, TCMMY is everywhere you enjoy your podcasts. 

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! 
Start for FREE

Chapters

• 37:20 Introduction to Tribalism
• 2:58:00 The Dangers of Comfort and Familiarity
• 10:17:25 Final Thoughts and Community Reflection

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

Thank you. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the All Purpose Pod for an all-purpose life with you all, and have you listening to the Inspiration Station? Thank you for making us part of your week. I'm your host, mr U. We are back with you again and I'm grateful for that. Looking at the comments, I'm getting the personal messages, messages on our social, our YouTube channels. You guys are enjoying the Inspiration Station. It's obviously making an impact. I'm really excited about that, even a little bit emotional. This is a long journey to get to this place where we can do this with some kind of regularity and with some kind of value. It means a lot to us. So thank you again for supporting this show the way you have been supporting me personally. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:21

In regards to this episode today, this one is one of those that probably going to have me sighing throughout the entire episode, because it's such a powerful topic. At the same time, we leave so many opportunities for us to grow because we've got so much work to do and we don't seem to be making strides. Maybe we are, we just can't see it, but it just feels like we're hitting brick walls when it comes to this topic. So I'm hoping that your comments and questions and your thoughts will help us kind of parse all this stuff out. Excuse me, but recently on our T3 show every Thursday night at 7 pm EST shameless plug we talked about diversity in sports, specifically in the NFL. We referenced those issues that's been going on with that and we even briefed the idea that perhaps this is a societal problem outside of just sports. I believe that's true. I don't think there's any real debate here with that. A lot of people have big opinions about why this is still going on, why this is still an issue in sports.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Our recent research project, if you will, was very enlightening. We realized that the problem is going on in America and not just in the NFL. That's really just emblematic of what's going on in our country. It's present in our corporations. I mean honestly, I was in the corporate world for quite a while, from a social level to a management level, and I've seen the interview process. I've seen how it was crafted. I've seen people who were hired and promoted primarily because they connected with the interviewer as opposed to what they learned background-wise, but they had an experience, what they had in just mental makeup and passing some of the tests and examinations that we would perform. Honestly, it really wasn't right in a lot of cases, but it is pretty emblematic of what goes on in the corporate world as a whole. You even see it in the school system as well, and definitely and this is probably the most egregious example but it actually does happen in the American church as well, and definitely and this is probably the most egregious example but it actually does happen in the American church as well.

Speaker 1: 3:29

It's not popular, it's not a popular conversation, but it's still very true. So we're not talking about the NFL today, but I'm talking about sports right now. We're talking about diversity, but just on a different slant. There's an idea that we are supposed to try to find our tribe, find those people who get us, who connect with us, who like us for who we are, people who are maybe perhaps we can talk to and be honest with and be open, sit down and have coffee with and talk real with, and not live in fear of offending them. Honestly, the idea sounds great.

Speaker 1: 4:04

The way I crafted it might even be the best idea I ever heard, but there's a dark side to tribalism. There's a dark side to this. I know overall, we have a deep need for community. We can be in a crowded room and always drift towards somebody who's just like us, who gets us. It's uncanny how that happens. You know, we can trust and support networks and kind of get to a place where we can be able to be ourselves without offending people and be happy and have the get along mentality. I mean a lot of us do that because we don't want the drama. We don't want to get to places where it makes us uncomfortable, where we have a tense environment, work-wise or play-wise. But the problem is that comfort kills. I've said that on multiple podcast episodes, especially in our first two seasons of the show. Comfort kills and familiarity breeds contempt. These aren't just catchphrases, this is really happening. And if it becomes negative it overrides our ability to reason.

Speaker 1: 5:05

And the goal is to kind of self-protect the tribe. I mean there's movies and TV shows that have the same stuff in mind. I can name them all, but I don't want to promote these shows, especially shows that I don't watch. But there's so many shows and movies out here where you see that kind of tribal mentality. Protect the tribe. I mean. I have referenced Mean Girls in the past. I guess it's a good example of this. The goal of all of the worker bees is to protect the queen bee, to make sure that nothing happens to her, that she remains untouched, and they take bullets for her, literally and figuratively speaking.

Speaker 1: 5:42

In the hiring process you see a lot People hire familiar faces, familiar meaning people who look like them, who resemble them. They engage with those who they may have had some kind of long history with or perhaps share common interests. I've seen interviewees and interviewers bond over the hometown that they came from and that person got a leg up in the interviewing race immediately, just because they came from a similar background as the person that was interviewing them. It doesn't sound right. We have seen this in the NFL, kind of some of the same things. But when you start dealing with in absolutes it can get really really ugly really really fast. Actually, that's how cults are born.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So the idea of finding a tribe, hey, I'm totally with it. I like the idea of that. You know what I'm saying. But I guess you got to ask yourself what do you have to do to be a part of that tribe? What's your requirement to be a part of the community? In some communities they're wholesome, they're healthy, they have a strong foundation. You don't have to go in and conform to what you're seeing. You don't have to talk like, dress like or act like people in the community and still be accepted. And then in some cases where, if you act different, if you don't fit, if you talk too fast, you talk too slow, if you talk with your hands, if you talk with your hands behind your back, all of a sudden you're in a category and people begin to tend to drift away may not be as common as those in the community.

Speaker 1: 7:36

So it's just something to think about Finding your tribe. There's nothing wrong with that. But tribalism has a dark side. You got to be really careful about that. Some of the worst things that happened in the history of our country came out of the dark side of tribalism. I won't go into the name of all those things, but we've been back into the time of the Jews and Nazi conflict. That came out of tribalism, the dark side of it, where people begin to start creating ideologies and start speaking and dealing in absolutes and, before you know it, bad things resulted because people were so locked into the way they looked and the way that they felt and who they were and everybody else who didn't resemble that or look that way became an enemy and it became an ugly situation.

Speaker 1: 8:16

That Mean Girls movie was about cults. You might think it was humorous, and maybe it was, but it was about a cult, a system of devotion towards a particular figure or object. That's a cult, where misplaced adoration goes from many people to one person. That's a cult. We need to be really careful about that and really mindful about not falling into tribalism. So I'm going to ask you a question today that might kind of cut to the quick a little bit, but I got to ask this.

Speaker 1: 8:46

In the communities that you lead, in the areas where you are in charge, speaking to you specifically the areas where you're in charge, can you see tribalism or the dark side of it in your community? Do you feel like everyone is available and open and honest and loving and compassionate towards everyone in the community? Do you see that yourself? If you say I don't know, then that could be an opportunity there for you to start looking more into the community, because you are part of it and it represents you. So these things go on in your community, just like in your household. If something's going on with your kids, it represents the parents. You may not know that's going on, you may not like it, but it represents the parents and sometimes it can be bad or it can be really good. It depends In the community that you're over, in, the organization that you run, is the dark side of tribalism at work, in any area. Do you see a consistent, strong and nurturing trust and support network? Do you see that? Do you see familiarity breeding contempt? Do you see people talking and treating each other in a way that may not be the original standard you have for the organization or your community? Think about that kind of stuff, because right now that's a seed that can grow into a big tree that can produce the kind of fruit that perhaps you didn't originally intend to produce.

Speaker 1: 10:09

Wherever you are and however you're listening to the Call Me, mr you and the Inspiration Station. Thanks again for making us a part of your week. Hope you enjoyed the episode today. Drop your comments, whether you love it or you hate it, in the comments section. Let us know what you think. I'm happy to get back with you as soon as I can. Thanks for listening on all of our listening platforms and, of course, watching us on our YouTube channel, youtubecom at TheyCallMeMrU. Thanks again for listening. Have a wonderful day. We'll talk again soon. Outro Music.