What happened in a movie set in the US last week patently demonstrates the wisdom of this lesson and the folly of choosing to ignore it. A seasoned award-winning actor pulled the trigger of a .45 long colt revolver and fatally shot a cinematographer. An accident for sure, but one that cannot be reversed. Had everyone gone back to the basics, the 42-year-old lady would not have popped her clogs.
Equally dangerous is the carcinogenic tribalism fervour that has gripped an insignificant number of our restive fellow citizens. What is tribalism? In the context of this article, tribalism is a false and fragile sense of identity borne by a community-centred culture of unquestioning loyalty to one’s tribe, elevating it over others, resulting in the generation of the harmful groupthink mentality, where reason and objectivity are sacrificed on the altar of perennial allegiance to one’s tribe. This type of tribalism that is sloshing about part of the populace is unfortunately discharging a repugnant foul odour into the air and is by all accounts a national liability. The curve of history is anti-tribalism, for history teaches us that owing to tribal wars, many occasioned by royal conflicts, inflated self-worth, and disputes over land, avertible mass displacements took place and promising lives were lost.
