Tribe — Sebastian Junger

In effect, humans have dragged a body with a long hominid history into an overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, competitive, inequitable, and socially-isolating environment with dire consequences. Sebastian Junger Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

So every human instinct is honed not for life on your own, but for life like this, in a tribe. Humans need tribes12 as much as bees need a hive.

Human beings can’t help it: we need to belong. One of the most powerful of our survival mechanisms is to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. We are drawn to leaders and to their ideas, and we can’t resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new.

Junger reflected, “humans don’t mind hardship, in fact, they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary.”⁠11 Junger argues that “modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.”