Status
Available
Publication
New York, NY : Twelve, 2016.
Description
History. Sociology. Military. Nonfiction. HTML:We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understandingâ??"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Tribe explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided wor… (more)
Media reviews
Despite its occasionally despairing tone, Tribe is a stirring clarion call for a return to solidarity. In advocating a public, shared confrontation with the psychic scars of war, Junger aims to stop trauma burning a hole through individual veterans. Such a collective catharsis might also be our
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best hope of healing the wounds modern society has inflicted on itself. Show Less
Junger argues persuasively that postcombat psychological problems must be understood as a problem of reintegrating to society on such terms, at least as much as they are due to the trauma of war. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a medical term for a cultural problem: the basic impossibility of
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digesting the experience of combat as an isolated individual among other isolated individuals, each devoted to pursuing his or her private interests. There is no tribe. To risk one’s life for the common good is to declare oneself outside this cultural logic of acquisitive individualism; the veteran is an outsider to us by definition, and no amount of yellow ribbons can change that fact. Show Less
Mr. Junger’s premise is simple: Modern civilization may be swell, giving us unimaginable autonomy and material bounty. But it has also deprived us of the psychologically invaluable sense of community and interdependence that we hominids enjoyed for millions of years. It is only during moments of
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great adversity that we come together and enjoy that kind of fellowship — which may explain why, paradoxically, we thrive during those moments. (In the six months after Sept. 11, Mr. Junger writes, the murder rate in New York dropped by 40 percent, and the suicide rate by 20 percent.) Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
On paper I should like this book - a criticism of the alienation of modern society, and a description of the ways that escaping that alienation can cause trauma - but in actual fact I found it tedious and mildly irritating. Junger has a profoundly evopsych/materialist approach to human nature, and
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while I found I didn't necessarily disagree with any of his conclusions, I disliked extremely the way he went about making them. Eventually I decided that this book is Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell for a masculine-conservative readership and decided that it might be a fine book, it simply wasn't for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member larryerick
I like to think of this as a Malcolm Gladwell book, such as The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, or Outliers: The Story of Success, but written by a well-seasoned embedded war correspondent unusually sensitive to his subject.
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For anyone who has read the author's popular Afghanistan war book, War, or seen the Restrepo documentary film, you can see a link to modern American soldiers returning home in the text. In fact, I had assumed this was going to be roughly equivalent to David Finkel's Thank You for Your Service companion piece to his Iraq war tome, The Good Soldiers: soldiers in intense war return home without much success, both rather emotionally charged books. This author takes a much different approach. It is not hard to see the book as separate lectures on communities, soldiers and communities in war, and soldiers returning home, but with the central emphasis on our local communities, not on people with weapons. Yes, lectures, but lucid stimulating analysis that have audience members impatient for the Q&A session, not dry readings required by a college curriculum. Each "lecture" gives the reader plenty to chew on. Our American "tribe" is found wanting in several respects, but this is not a highly-charged propaganda piece. It calmly lays out facts on competing social norms and lets the reader see sometimes startling differences, differences we Americans commonly have ignored and continue to ignore to our peril. This book is very much worth the read. The fact that it's a slender volume makes not reading it almost a crime. Show Less
LibraryThing member emed0s
Brilliant in a sort of Malcom Gladwell way. The author offers a look on the causes for the plague of depression and suicides, especially in the military. He offers plenty of colorful examples to illustrate his points. But after reading, the very entertaining 192 pages, I can't help but miss some
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self questioning on part of the author regarding his views, sure he offers experts' opinions and book and studies references but only the ones that reinforce his points never showing the unknowns that make so difficult to understand human behavior, especially on a social level. Show Less
LibraryThing member deusvitae
Why would people flee Western civilization for a more "primitive" life?
Such is the question that bedeviled some early American colonists regarding some of their kin "going Indian," and such frames Junger's exploration into the importance of tribal association and participation to one's health and
Junger argues that we all developed in a hunter/gatherer tribal system which proved egalitarian and equal. All members participated in hunting and gathering; all members were thus taken care of. In such tribes anyone who would attempt to take resources without providing effort or who would take more for him or herself would have to face some sort of punishment or exclusion to maintain group integrity. In this way, suggests Junger, we all yearn to participate in tribal associations greater than ourselves, and our current individualistic existence in Western culture does not satisfy those yearnings.
He speaks of his experience as a war correspondent and from discussions held with people who came together in a shared tribal experience because of war or natural disasters. He considers the plight of soldiers of modern wars and PTSD and suggests that for many PTSD has more to do with difficulties re-acclimating to modern culture because of its alienation.
His challenge is bipartisan: for good reason there should be concern both about the "freeloader" and the one who takes far more than what is necessary, and we are designed for community and to be part of something greater than ourselves.
I would agree but would phrase the argument in more theological ways: man as made in the image of the God who is one in relational unity will seek relational unity with God and with other humans. The author does well in pointing out the dangerous consequences of our ever more individualist society which eschews communal participation; the longer and further this goes, the more alienation, the more isolation, the more difficulties people will experience with mental health and well-being. Humans are tribal creatures, and it is not a bad thing.
Such is the question that bedeviled some early American colonists regarding some of their kin "going Indian," and such frames Junger's exploration into the importance of tribal association and participation to one's health and
Show More
life.Junger argues that we all developed in a hunter/gatherer tribal system which proved egalitarian and equal. All members participated in hunting and gathering; all members were thus taken care of. In such tribes anyone who would attempt to take resources without providing effort or who would take more for him or herself would have to face some sort of punishment or exclusion to maintain group integrity. In this way, suggests Junger, we all yearn to participate in tribal associations greater than ourselves, and our current individualistic existence in Western culture does not satisfy those yearnings.
He speaks of his experience as a war correspondent and from discussions held with people who came together in a shared tribal experience because of war or natural disasters. He considers the plight of soldiers of modern wars and PTSD and suggests that for many PTSD has more to do with difficulties re-acclimating to modern culture because of its alienation.
His challenge is bipartisan: for good reason there should be concern both about the "freeloader" and the one who takes far more than what is necessary, and we are designed for community and to be part of something greater than ourselves.
I would agree but would phrase the argument in more theological ways: man as made in the image of the God who is one in relational unity will seek relational unity with God and with other humans. The author does well in pointing out the dangerous consequences of our ever more individualist society which eschews communal participation; the longer and further this goes, the more alienation, the more isolation, the more difficulties people will experience with mental health and well-being. Humans are tribal creatures, and it is not a bad thing.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
Proves the adage that good things can come in small packages. In this short book, not a wasted word, Junger combines memoir, journalism and scholarly writing to give us a book that makes one think about where our society has been and where it is heading. Tackles the tough subjects of the rising
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rate of mental illness and PTSD that many in our society are experiencing. Starting at the beginning with the Native Americans and their society that celebrated communal living. Warning us of the selfishness and lack of connection that our way of living has fostered and the results that many continue to live with. Informative and thought provoking, made such alot of sense to me as I am sure it will do for many. So glad I read this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member carolfoisset
He discusses some interesting points of view regarding war and military personnel, offers perspectives that I had never thought of before. However, I did feel that he made some sweeping statements without a lot of evidence to back them up. He reads the book himself and his voice is a pleasure to
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listen to. I am going to check out his podcast! Show Less
LibraryThing member thewanderingjew
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, Sebastian Junger, author and narrator
I must admit that I thought this book was going to be about our men and women in the armed forces who have suffered from PTSD, and about other causes of that particular disability that has inhibited the normal function of so
The author decried our way of life as negatively impacting the environment and our relationships and interactions with others because we have created a society of people who consistently take more than their fair share and give less than he deems necessary to create a more egalitarian society for all. He minimized the trauma that is PTSD and glorified the trauma, tragedies and catastrophes that brought it on, by insisting it was a short term "illness". In early societies, he insists that extreme trauma and tragedy actually caused euphoria since it engendered the community to come together in selfless ways, rather than selfish ways which is what we are experiencing in the modern world. Essentially, he blamed modernity for acknowledging the problem that it inherently caused because of our own behavior.
When the book begins, Junger discusses the American Indian, but first he issued a disclaimer concerning his lack of footnotes and then discussed his controversial use of certain terms, one of which is American Indian vs. Native American. Then he sang their praises while basically trashing what he believes is our own selfish way of life. We, the author notes, have lost our sense of community, of sharing, of belonging. This, he eventually concludes, citing chapter and verse of instances I have never heard of, that it is our isolation and greed that are some of the reasons for our mental health issues. We have forgotten how to share. We have forgotten how to care. He judges and makes moral equivalents that make no sense simply because he wants to, in order to prove his point, often comparing apples to oranges, and then claiming his examples prove his point without adequately referencing his conclusions. It seemed as if he decided what he wanted to prove and simply chose only examples that supported his viewpoint.
He used Beau Bergdahl as an example of our habit of rushing into making conclusions and often drawing false conclusions. He admitted he was a deserter who left his post and caused the deaths of his fellow soldiers, who went to search for him, but he thought it was wrong to judge him more harshly than those who caused the collapse of the financial market which he blamed on banks and other institutions. He believes the consequences from the economic debacle led to far greater casualties. He failed to note the fact that the government regulations were deeply at fault, and if bankers should be punished, so should those in the government, like Democrat Barney Frank, who insisted on regulations which encouraged the sub-prime mortgages that were the underlying cause of the failures.
Junger’s progressive agenda becomes more and more apparent as he writes. His political views and ideology guide him rather than the facts, and his political leanings were obvious from word one. He used many single-minded, one-sided opinions to reach conclusions he preferred, and he found obscure bits and pieces of personal experiences or ideas which backed him up, but often defied general knowledge and the real personal experience of soldiers and others who had experienced war and lived through monumental disasters.
He lost me when he decided that chaos and extreme danger often engendered euphoria! He actually cited experiences like 9/11, to prove his point, but my own personal experience with family contradicted his conclusions. Perhaps those who were not directly in the actual tragedy of 9/11, were able to be euphoric, but those affected were not! PTSD is a serious problem, once referred to as shell-shocked and battle fatigue. It has been around a long time and is not a newly discovered dysfunction. In some, it may be short term as Junger believes, and that is lucky for those so minimally affected. In others, there is often a trigger which provokes a response that had remained hidden or submerged until that catalyst., like a memory, a sound, or a conversation, caused the disability to reemerge. There may be some that take advantage of the disability as some do in all areas of life, historically, but for many the experience of PTSD is disabling through no fault of their own for long periods of time. Those afflicted are not trying to take from society unfairly, as those who knowingly took loans they could not repay, or as Bergdahl did when he knowingly set out to betray his fellow soldiers. Even the bankers did not knowingly set out to destroy the economy; they followed the current banking requirements. Yet the author makes no mention of their culpability.
I think Junger may have been right about the failure of society, in that society does use people for its own ends and does take advantage of them for selfish reasons, but usually it is for the benefit of the larger society. When real harm is caused there are usually appropriate actions taken to correct them and alter the course. Junger seems to be espousing communal living, perhaps as I mentioned earlier, Socialism. I hope he will look further into the anecdotes out there that prove that his idea of a "collective" type of society fails as it expands, and then rethink his own Pollyanna approach to a societal problem which is, in his unfortunate view, the "ugly, selfish American"! He also seems to be trying to prove that bravery is a negative behavior, but depression can serve as a positive influence. I simply could not get my head around that premise.
I was very disappointed in the obvious political agenda this book seemed intent on presenting during our current contentious political environment. He seemed to want to encourage a world in which everyone and everything is equal, without recognizing that when the ambition to succeed declines, the amount of money to be redistributed declines, and everyone grows poorer together. The ultimate end result of economic equality turns out to be simply that everyone is poor rather than everyone is uplifted!
Disclaimer: This represents my own opinions from my own experience in much the same way as the author and his sources represent theirs. We are all entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts, so remarked Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
I must admit that I thought this book was going to be about our men and women in the armed forces who have suffered from PTSD, and about other causes of that particular disability that has inhibited the normal function of so
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many with this affliction, and yet there is no adequate explanation, diagnosis or treatment. I hoped to learn about how they could be helped. Instead of that, I found a book that talked more about their, and our, basic inability to fit into a communal type society in which we all had a job and a purpose in a productive lifestyle. The theory sounds eerily like a treatise on Socialism.The author decried our way of life as negatively impacting the environment and our relationships and interactions with others because we have created a society of people who consistently take more than their fair share and give less than he deems necessary to create a more egalitarian society for all. He minimized the trauma that is PTSD and glorified the trauma, tragedies and catastrophes that brought it on, by insisting it was a short term "illness". In early societies, he insists that extreme trauma and tragedy actually caused euphoria since it engendered the community to come together in selfless ways, rather than selfish ways which is what we are experiencing in the modern world. Essentially, he blamed modernity for acknowledging the problem that it inherently caused because of our own behavior.
When the book begins, Junger discusses the American Indian, but first he issued a disclaimer concerning his lack of footnotes and then discussed his controversial use of certain terms, one of which is American Indian vs. Native American. Then he sang their praises while basically trashing what he believes is our own selfish way of life. We, the author notes, have lost our sense of community, of sharing, of belonging. This, he eventually concludes, citing chapter and verse of instances I have never heard of, that it is our isolation and greed that are some of the reasons for our mental health issues. We have forgotten how to share. We have forgotten how to care. He judges and makes moral equivalents that make no sense simply because he wants to, in order to prove his point, often comparing apples to oranges, and then claiming his examples prove his point without adequately referencing his conclusions. It seemed as if he decided what he wanted to prove and simply chose only examples that supported his viewpoint.
He used Beau Bergdahl as an example of our habit of rushing into making conclusions and often drawing false conclusions. He admitted he was a deserter who left his post and caused the deaths of his fellow soldiers, who went to search for him, but he thought it was wrong to judge him more harshly than those who caused the collapse of the financial market which he blamed on banks and other institutions. He believes the consequences from the economic debacle led to far greater casualties. He failed to note the fact that the government regulations were deeply at fault, and if bankers should be punished, so should those in the government, like Democrat Barney Frank, who insisted on regulations which encouraged the sub-prime mortgages that were the underlying cause of the failures.
Junger’s progressive agenda becomes more and more apparent as he writes. His political views and ideology guide him rather than the facts, and his political leanings were obvious from word one. He used many single-minded, one-sided opinions to reach conclusions he preferred, and he found obscure bits and pieces of personal experiences or ideas which backed him up, but often defied general knowledge and the real personal experience of soldiers and others who had experienced war and lived through monumental disasters.
He lost me when he decided that chaos and extreme danger often engendered euphoria! He actually cited experiences like 9/11, to prove his point, but my own personal experience with family contradicted his conclusions. Perhaps those who were not directly in the actual tragedy of 9/11, were able to be euphoric, but those affected were not! PTSD is a serious problem, once referred to as shell-shocked and battle fatigue. It has been around a long time and is not a newly discovered dysfunction. In some, it may be short term as Junger believes, and that is lucky for those so minimally affected. In others, there is often a trigger which provokes a response that had remained hidden or submerged until that catalyst., like a memory, a sound, or a conversation, caused the disability to reemerge. There may be some that take advantage of the disability as some do in all areas of life, historically, but for many the experience of PTSD is disabling through no fault of their own for long periods of time. Those afflicted are not trying to take from society unfairly, as those who knowingly took loans they could not repay, or as Bergdahl did when he knowingly set out to betray his fellow soldiers. Even the bankers did not knowingly set out to destroy the economy; they followed the current banking requirements. Yet the author makes no mention of their culpability.
I think Junger may have been right about the failure of society, in that society does use people for its own ends and does take advantage of them for selfish reasons, but usually it is for the benefit of the larger society. When real harm is caused there are usually appropriate actions taken to correct them and alter the course. Junger seems to be espousing communal living, perhaps as I mentioned earlier, Socialism. I hope he will look further into the anecdotes out there that prove that his idea of a "collective" type of society fails as it expands, and then rethink his own Pollyanna approach to a societal problem which is, in his unfortunate view, the "ugly, selfish American"! He also seems to be trying to prove that bravery is a negative behavior, but depression can serve as a positive influence. I simply could not get my head around that premise.
I was very disappointed in the obvious political agenda this book seemed intent on presenting during our current contentious political environment. He seemed to want to encourage a world in which everyone and everything is equal, without recognizing that when the ambition to succeed declines, the amount of money to be redistributed declines, and everyone grows poorer together. The ultimate end result of economic equality turns out to be simply that everyone is poor rather than everyone is uplifted!
Disclaimer: This represents my own opinions from my own experience in much the same way as the author and his sources represent theirs. We are all entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts, so remarked Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
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LibraryThing member ohernaes
Tribe takes the starting point that humans are adapted to live in small communities, "tribes", and tries to use that to explain some puzzles of modern life.
-Starts with stories from pre-revolutionary US about people from (white) settlements running off to join Indian tribes. More freedom and life
-Only in Northern European societies and North America so many children sleep alone. And get intense relationship with stuffed animals...
-More loyalty and less fraud e.g. in tribes.
-Blitz-"psychiatric hospitals saw admissions go down" "long standing patients saw their symptoms subside during the period of intense air raids, voluntary admissions to psychiatric wards noticeably declined, and even epileptics reported having fewer seizures" ... "... suggested that some people actually did better during wartime"
-Durkheim: when European societies went to war, suicide rates dropped.
-Psychiatric wards strangely empty in France during wars, and same in civil wars in Spain, Algeria, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland. Depression rates declined in Belfast during the troubles.
-Theory of sociologist Charles Fritz: Disasters create community of sufferers. Therapeutic for mental illness.
-Somewhat controversial: victim status and various benefits like lifelong disability hampers reintegration into normal life for former combatants. Not encouraged or allowed to contribute to society. Society also needs to give these people a way to speak out and relieve themselves of their experiences.
-Starts with stories from pre-revolutionary US about people from (white) settlements running off to join Indian tribes. More freedom and life
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better adapted. Surprising-I had not heard of this before, how common was that really?-Only in Northern European societies and North America so many children sleep alone. And get intense relationship with stuffed animals...
-More loyalty and less fraud e.g. in tribes.
-Blitz-"psychiatric hospitals saw admissions go down" "long standing patients saw their symptoms subside during the period of intense air raids, voluntary admissions to psychiatric wards noticeably declined, and even epileptics reported having fewer seizures" ... "... suggested that some people actually did better during wartime"
-Durkheim: when European societies went to war, suicide rates dropped.
-Psychiatric wards strangely empty in France during wars, and same in civil wars in Spain, Algeria, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland. Depression rates declined in Belfast during the troubles.
-Theory of sociologist Charles Fritz: Disasters create community of sufferers. Therapeutic for mental illness.
-Somewhat controversial: victim status and various benefits like lifelong disability hampers reintegration into normal life for former combatants. Not encouraged or allowed to contribute to society. Society also needs to give these people a way to speak out and relieve themselves of their experiences.
Show Less
LibraryThing member frenchhorn88
Quick ready, very timely insights about how humans function better when dependent on tight-knit communities.
LibraryThing member vpfluke
An interesting book that shows that paradise is not really good for us, but rather the stresses of living and coping together, where true bonding may occur, and leading into fond remembrance. This may happen from war or living with Native Americans as a captive. Junger gives a different look at
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human nature and what one might expect. It even gave me a little insight as to how someone like Donald Trump was so attractive to many people. Show Less
LibraryThing member dele2451
War journalist examines possible causes for the sharp rise in chronic PTSD in returning combat veterans and the rise in rampage shootings in Western suburbia. I find the title is bit ambiguous (and the camo details are not apparent on computer/phone screens) so I fear this book may miss the
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attention of a large portion of readers who would find it interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member LivelyLady
The pros of sharing like experiences on mental well being as demonstrated by experiences like trauma, terror and war. Good point. Very dark.
LibraryThing member akblanchard
I listened to Tribe on audio (read by the author) rather than reading it as a book. This departure from my typical format may have affected how I perceived the text.
In Tribe journalist Sebastian Junger looks at all of the problems besetting western civilization, including school shootings, PTSD,
There are a number of sharp observations in this short but wide-ranging book, but, unfortunately they don't add up to a compelling whole.
In Tribe journalist Sebastian Junger looks at all of the problems besetting western civilization, including school shootings, PTSD,
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and corporate greed, and blames them all on one indisputable fact: we don't live the same way our primate ancestors did, or as more traditional, tribal societies still do. This approach seems just a bit oversimplified, and Junger offers no practical solutions based on this premise, except perhaps that new parents should co-sleep with their babies. There are a number of sharp observations in this short but wide-ranging book, but, unfortunately they don't add up to a compelling whole.
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LibraryThing member byebyelibrary
Junger's book, originally a Vanity Fair article, is in the genre of the great magazine manifesto piece. It takes a controversial stance on a problem and relates it back to how we have collectively taken a bad turn. The aim is less to inform than to give us a self help/informercial level AHA!
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moment. Junger offers no in depth portraits of the Iraq vets he claims are faking or misdiagnosing their PTSD. In fact, the only vet really ever described is in the very brief glimpse we get of a an Apache Vietnam veteran. Junger is not saying those non-combat PTSD-claiming vets from the recent wars are faking but rather they are suffering from the same affliction we all have: modern civilization. While the book is provocative and entertaining, in the end it seems a bit too much like the now debunked Paleo diet writ large to encompass all aspects of modern life. Junger is obsessed with frontier stories of White captives refusing to return to civilization and men abandoning civilization for Stone Age cultures. Don't deny it happened. However, Junger's claim that this was all a one way movement needs to be explored. No one ever left the farm to open a hardware store in town?Junger boasts about his adventures hitch-hiking and living on a Navajo Reservation and camping with the Northern Alliance. But at the end of the day he clearly has voted with his feet. His jet-setting carbon foot print is probably as bad a DiCaprio. This book in the ironic end is a self-indulgent lazy work by a journalist spoiled by his own success. Show Less
LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair
A lot to chew on in a small book. Unfortunately, I have to miss the group discussion. Expect it will be a good one. In our modern society, we have no tribe, or our tribe is limited to a very small number of people. We have material wealth and autonomy, but these things don't really make us feel
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well. The sense of community fostered by the shared experiences caused by really hard times brings out the best in us. The experience of combat is made bearable and even memorable, by the experience of comradeship with fellow soldiers. When the combat ends and the soldier returns to civilian life, they miss the comradeship fostered by danger and the need to protect one another. Much discussion of PTSD and its rise over time. Also the lack of PTSD in Israel, where everyone serves in their military. Show Less
LibraryThing member cmt100
There are some good lines and interesting insights, but I found it repetitive, making the same obvious point over and over. (Sort of like this review.) It began as an article, which was probably more appropriate for the material.
LibraryThing member johnverdon
An interesting journey of some dimensions and implications of how we have constructed masculinity.
This is a well written and accessible account of masculinity as experienced today by many many men. Worth the read.
This is a well written and accessible account of masculinity as experienced today by many many men. Worth the read.
LibraryThing member marshapetry
Man, the misogyny is strong in this guy. I can't fully rate this book because, as Junger points out, he doesn't footnote his work. So instead he just grabs statistics from the air about society, rampage killing, anything he wants, and makes up categories as if he were an authority. Not footnoting
I suspect this is loved evo devo fans, as he blatantly tosses all activities into a blanket male/female division, men are from Mars and women from venus don'cha know. The best blather is saved for how people blossom in war, because he met some people who miss it and lists stats that confirm it (though we're not privy to where he got them, it's 60% sure that he picked the right stats to support his theories) . I guess I can rethink the holocaust, because you just know those camp inmates were actually blossoming and flourishing in their small social communities. And you know, I'll bet he's right that not one camp inmate complained about lack of meaning in their life, quite possibly because they were concerned about where their next tidbit of food was going to come from, let alone... well, everything else, because food was pretty much it, the meaning of life . If only they knew that camp days were the best days evah and will probably miss those good old concentration camp days for the rest of their lives.
The wealthy society privilege rating on this book is very high.
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is fine if you're making a work of fiction, but when you make claims about people it is safer to give an inkling of where you got your crazy theories. I suspect this is loved evo devo fans, as he blatantly tosses all activities into a blanket male/female division, men are from Mars and women from venus don'cha know. The best blather is saved for how people blossom in war, because he met some people who miss it and lists stats that confirm it (though we're not privy to where he got them, it's 60% sure that he picked the right stats to support his theories) . I guess I can rethink the holocaust, because you just know those camp inmates were actually blossoming and flourishing in their small social communities. And you know, I'll bet he's right that not one camp inmate complained about lack of meaning in their life, quite possibly because they were concerned about where their next tidbit of food was going to come from, let alone... well, everything else, because food was pretty much it, the meaning of life . If only they knew that camp days were the best days evah and will probably miss those good old concentration camp days for the rest of their lives.
The wealthy society privilege rating on this book is very high.
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LibraryThing member arewenotben
Really enjoyed this, a good tight book which covers the subject well. Reminded me a lot of Johann Hari's Lost Connections with similar conclusions on how modern Western society is disrupting our natural behaviours and causing significant mental damage.
LibraryThing member jgoodwll
Very interesting. How Native Americans lived and whites captured wanted to stay with them while Native Americans captured by whites wanted to go home. How communities need to share. How hierarchies arose. How people bombed had high morale. How trauma works. How sleeping alone is new. How crime and
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suicide dip in wartime. Show Less
LibraryThing member oacevedo
This was not what I expected. I did not really like it.
LibraryThing member bookworm12
Junger has seen war up close. This book is less about tribal living and more about the essential nature of community to heal the brokenness caused by things like PTSD and political division.
“If you want to make a society work, then you don’t keep underscoring the places where you are
“If you want to make a society work, then you don’t keep underscoring the places where you are
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different—you underscore your shared humanity.” Show Less
LibraryThing member Daniel.Estes
Tribe by Sebastian Junger focuses on two main points of how humans are biologically wired to seek a tribe. One is that many aspects of modern life, from the industrial revolution to the digital age, challenge and disrupt our sense of community. And two, why war veterans returning from combat have
There's a culture war raging in America right now, some of which has also stretched out internationally thanks to globalization, and this war has many causes and effects going back years and decades. This need for a tribe, and its frequent intermittent loss, I believe is an under-discussed cause of this culture war. Globalization has a cost, and it's still unclear if we'll be able to pay the price AND continue to prosper. I believe we will but the outcome is very much unknown.
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such a difficult time reintegrating with society. Junger is a master storyteller here (he's also the reader of the audiobook) and both topics pull you right in. Even him talking about belonging feels like a kind of belonging in itself.There's a culture war raging in America right now, some of which has also stretched out internationally thanks to globalization, and this war has many causes and effects going back years and decades. This need for a tribe, and its frequent intermittent loss, I believe is an under-discussed cause of this culture war. Globalization has a cost, and it's still unclear if we'll be able to pay the price AND continue to prosper. I believe we will but the outcome is very much unknown.
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LibraryThing member steve02476
Short book, sort of a meandering essay about our social lives and especially about war and what it tells us about ourselves and how we live. I thought I wouldn’t like it, because it quotes a lot of social science without even pretending to be a scientific examination of the issues. But I liked
It’s also interesting, so much has been written lately about the evils of tribalism, and I tend to agree with a lot of that. But he is concentrating on the good aspects of tribalism, without discounting the fact that there are many awful aspects at the same time.
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almost everything he said, and I liked the way he said it.It’s also interesting, so much has been written lately about the evils of tribalism, and I tend to agree with a lot of that. But he is concentrating on the good aspects of tribalism, without discounting the fact that there are many awful aspects at the same time.
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LibraryThing member qaphsiel
In this little book, Junger deftly summarizes a lot of themes about what humans need, how they cope, and how our modern world fails to acknowledge and/or provide them: psychological, sociological, political.
It's in no way unfair, he gives modernity props where they're due. It's just that, like all
As the subtitle hints, he focuses on those returning home, which in this day and age, frequently means soldiers but also includes, for example, Peace Corps volunteers. However, the issues raised apply more broadly and anyone who cares about our modern discontents should take a couple hours to read this.
It's in no way unfair, he gives modernity props where they're due. It's just that, like all
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human endeavors, it's imperfect and because of its pace, we've gone down certain roads much more quickly than we can adapt to (culturally, but obviously evolutionarily too) and lost sight of how to be, for lack of a better way to put it, human to one another.As the subtitle hints, he focuses on those returning home, which in this day and age, frequently means soldiers but also includes, for example, Peace Corps volunteers. However, the issues raised apply more broadly and anyone who cares about our modern discontents should take a couple hours to read this.
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