<fallacy of equivocation>
That's a term I haven't heard before.
Where is the ambiguity? If you mean the word "tribe", I see an essential continuity of ideology, from technologically primitive hunter-gatherer societies, to today's societies. The meme of "tribe" is essentially identical to that of "nation", in my opinion.
A member of a tribe, or a nation, places the interests of his tribe/nation over that of Others. He believes, and usually has an elaborate religious/cultural justification for this, that his tribe/nation is inherently better, more truly human, than members of other tribes/nations. Every tribe believes they are the Chosen People.
And, yes, I see tribalism as primitive, a dangerous anachronism, in a world of WMD. We need a Second Enlightenment. The first one tamed religion (in Europe, and partly elsewhere). Now, we need to tame nationalism. It'll be a big, long project, since nationalism is such a powerful and dominant ideology today. |
