Does Tribalism Upset You? Musings on Circuitry, and the Mechanics Beneath Our Politics and Priorities

I keep hearing people express disapproval towards the very premise of tribalism, condemning it as archaic, primitive and immoral. 

If you are one of these people, I regret to inform you that tribalism is a normal, healthy and necessary aspect of the totality, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. 

The main keynote for the tribal circuitry in Human Design is support. Tribal people are extremely supportive- unless you are not part of their tribe or you do something that defies their laws and breaks the tribal bargain (like refusing to honor their traditions, or praying to a God that isn’t their God).

But as long as you keep up your end of the bargain, your tribe will support you simply because you’re part of the tribe and that’s what they do. If you’re tribal (or you’ve been conditioned to think you need to be tribal) and your son’s an asshole, you’re still going to protect him and support him financially because he’s your son. If he commits a crime, you will pay his bail and/or provide the lawyer. 

You don’t necessarily have to like your spouse- you just need to honor your contract with them, this is the foundation of the bond. It’s not about passion (that’s individual circuitry), it’s not about the desire to share new experiences together (that’s collective), it’s about mutual support. Love, honor and obey. 

What is the essence of tribal circuitry? The tribe fears extinction and wants to continue making babies and educating them to honor the traditions and values of the tribe, carrying on the historical patterns of behavior that have allowed the tribe to survive and prosper thus far, to ensure continuity. 

They want to make sure that their children will have the resources to succeed. So much about the tribe is rooted in the need for material resources, to nurture the next generation and better the tribe’s hierarchical standing amongst the collective.

The tribe is inherently territorial, and competitive with other tribes. 

It is also inherently conservative- it fears taking risks that may compromise its continuity and lead to failure or extinction. Naturally, innovation is essential and a refusal to adapt to changing times will also present a threat to the tribe’s material wellbeing. The tribe is constantly wrestling with this paradox. 

If you obey the tribe’s principles and approach them with a clear request to make a bargain, they can be sensitive to your needs and generous with their resources. If you defy their principles or encroach upon their territory (or at least what they believe to be their territory), they can be incredibly insensitive and uncaring. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just mechanics.

If you pose a threat to the tribe’s security, they will do whatever it takes to defend themselves and their territory. It’s not about proportionality, it’s not about logic, it’s about principles. It’s just how they’re wired.

Was that triggering for you to read? Maybe you thought, “People shouldn’t be like that. That’s regressive.”

Yes, humanity is on the brink of massive mutation. But at least for now, the tribe is alive and well, so maybe we can stop pretending that these traits are not natural and normal. You don’t have to approve of the ways tribal people behave, but it’s not serving anything for you to deny the unchangeable mechanics of the human condition. 

Dilemmas arise when tribal circuitry comes up against individuality or collective circuitry, in a relationship or in an individual. 

For example, someone who’s collective may look at a tribal being and feel embittered and frustrated by their lack of sharing and concern for the whole.

Or someone who has a combination of both individual and tribal circuitry within their own design might feel challenged by their conflicting desires- they want to support their community, but they also want to feel empowered as an individual to discover truth and purpose for themselves and go their own direction and explore their creativity as separate from the group. 

And then, there’s the phenomenon that occurs when you’re not actually that tribal but you’re conditioned to be. You’ll see people who have hardly any tribal circuitry but they’ve been conditioned to believe their worth (the ego is a huge part of tribal circuitry) comes from their ability to support their tribe, so now their entire life is about providing for their family and they’re totally disconnected from their true mission and purpose.

You’ll have someone with lots of collective abstract circuitry, someone who’s designed with a deep hunger for new experiences with new people, who suppresses this desire out of conditioned loyalty to the demands of the tribal bargain.

And then there’s the opposite side of the spectrum- let’s say you have someone who is actually very tribal, from a tribe that’s done well for itself, and their conditioning is to feel guilty about their privilege and thus try to prove themselves by betraying their own tribe and fighting for what their mind believes will benefit the collective. 

Or their mind tells them that tribalism is bad and wrong and they think they’ve transcended it, but what they don’t realize is that they have simply abandoned the tribe they came from and now they’re loyal to the tribe of social justice warriors, advocating for policies and paradigms that support their people while actually creating a less healthy society for the majority- all the while delusionally believing they’re working towards the good of the whole.

The tribe will fight for the wellbeing of its people and their inclusion, even if it’s not what’s healthiest for the collective. For example, the tribe might say we need inclusive hiring practices, and we should not discriminate against someone who has an intellectual disability, we should make accommodations so that they can do their job. Someone with collective logical circuitry might veto that, and say we need to hire the people who are most well equipped to do the work. The stream of collective logic does not include the emotional center- what’s logical to ensure a healthy future for the collective isn’t always emotionally sensitive.

If you don’t have much collective circuitry, you aren’t actually designed with a strong capacity to sense or understand what will be in service to the greatest good. It’s not what you’re here for. Be who you are, and you’ll be more effective.

No circuitry is “better” or “worse”- it’s just about being what you are. If you’re tribal, be tribal. If you’re not, don’t.

Of course, we all have a mix of different circuitries. It’s very rare to see a chart that has zero activations in a particular circuit group. So, how do we wrap our minds around that in order to figure out what to prioritize and how to align ourselves politically? Trick question. The mind is not equipped for this. Follow your strategy & authority, and it’ll bring your actions into congruence.