Tribes

It would appear that we are a state composed of tribes.  Now, in the past, tribes came from a specific forebear and maintained their identity by mythos.

There has been a move in the recent past to create tribes whose identity is wound around a set of common beliefs, whose contact is mediated through the internet and whose goals are, at best, ambiguous.  In a sense, this blog can be considered part and parcel of the doomer/prepper tribe, though I have no intention of becoming a dues paying member.

I cannot see that this will stand.  The internet is progressively becoming less free and more moderated.  Thus any tribe that chooses to set up shop in the ethereal lands of cyberspace will find its identity subsumed by the mass of tribes competing there.

The internet is ultimately a blending machine, taking the raw material of minority opinion and grinding it through a opinion machine where the new and useful are ground off to comply with the majority opinion.  It is a slow process, but it is usually sped up significantly as soon as the members of the group discover that they can make money on the deal.

No folks, you can make all the arguments you wish about the ability of the internet to create tribes, but the truth of the matter is that the tribes that you create in cyberspace are usually mutual mental masturbation societies.  Real tribes are all around you in the physical world, you just have to hold your nose, choose one, and get to work.