Book Thoughts: Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this short book, Junger, who has worked as years as a war correspondent, proposes the inability of modern society to address some of the more tribal needs of humans (hence the title). In short, Junger proposes that humans throughout history, particularly history of civilization, have had an attraction to discarding their "structured" society for the tribal. His book discusses various examples of this phenomena, as it were, from people leaving colonies to live with American Indian tribes, to people missing war during times of peace because of the experience of tribal fellowship in troops, and even war torn cities/countries.

This discussion sets up Junger's criticism of modern society. As he states in the introduction to his book, "[h]umans don't mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. (xvii). Throughout the book, Junger returns again and again to this particular criticism of modern society - "The beauty and the tragedy the modern world is that it eliminates many situations that require people to demonstrate a commitment to the collective good." (59)

For Junger, modern society has stripped our relationships and community of the very things that have defined humanity for millennia. Junger argues that despite all the progress of modern society, it is not a positive experience for individuals. "Whatever the technological advances in modern society - and they're nearly miraculous - the individualized lifestyles that those technologies spawn seem to be deeply brutalizing to the human spirit." (93) Junger maintains that this is evident in the increase in the numbers of people that suffer from mental health ailments in today's society, convincingly pointing to the fact that diagnosis of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions increase during times of peace, as opposed to times of great turmoil and upheaval.

The book, for all its interesting anecdotes and references to studies, could fairly be criticized, I think, for perhaps oversimplifying things; perhaps relying too much on correlation without necessarily proving causation. But such criticism I think misses the point of Junger's work. I don't think he is attempting to make a case that modern society, with the isolation so easily caused by its technological advances, is evil or bad for humans. Rather, I think he wishes to point out that humans, in evolutionary terms, are social or tribal creatures; and that our understanding of that fact has real meaning and impact on our sense of purpose and self-worth, which consequently affects our mental health and happiness.

In all, considering the book is so short, and that it gives one so much to consider and reflect upon, its definitely worth a read.

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