Amy Chua, in this brilliant book, brings to light how we are blinded by our ideological prisms. We ignore primal group identities to our peril. Yet for billions of people the world over, these identities are very powerful and meaningful; they drive political upheaval throughout the world. And unfortunately for U.S. policy, it has been the Achilles’ heel.
Here in the U.S., we are what she calls a super-group; we have many member subgroups that are not required to suppress their identities. We can share an overarching collective identity. But we are unique among the world’s great powers. We have failed to realize this with are actions in other nations. A classic example is Libya. Obama spoke of the future being in the hands of the Libyan people after the fall of Gaddafi, but failed to realize that those “people” consist of some 140 different tribes. They did not come together to build a nation. It has become obvious to the author that political tribalism is the most powerful form of group identity. Another good example that the author elaborates upon, is Vietnam. There we had what she called a “market-dominant minority.” A Chinese minority dominated the poor indigenous majority around them. The Chinese had a stranglehold on Vietnam’s business and commerce. It appears the U.S. knew little to nothing about these ethnic realities when invading the country. So “from a tribal politics perspective, virtually every step we took in Vietnam was guaranteed to turn the Vietnamese against us.” The author next describes our efforts in Afghanistan. Here again American leaders and policy makers missed the ethnic realities in this country. Indeed it was our ignorance of these realities that lead to the rise of the Taliban. As the author notes, “as with Vietnam, nearly every move we made in Afghanistan was practically designed to turn large segments of the population against us.”
The author now turns our attention to Iraq, where we minimized the importance of the Sunni-Shia divide. We can now look back at the mistakes made, such as the “de-Baathification” that occurred early on. In 2015, one expert estimated that over 60 percent of ISIS’s most prominent leaders were former Baathists. This is an interesting story, which the author covers in detail. It is just astounding. In the end, what have we accomplished? Tehran now wields more influence over Baghdad than Washington, and we paid the price in money and lives. And just as with the Taliban, how much did we contribute to the rise of ISIS? One thing that twists an individual’s psyche, turning them to terrorism, is what the author discusses next – group psychology. Group identification and tribal instinct can have a dark side: a tendency to dehumanize outsiders and derive satisfaction from doing so. We see that becoming a terrorist involves a “gradual process of socialization, indoctrination, and radicalization.” I need to quote the author directly on this, as she puts it, “Against a backdrop of stark group inequality, the most successful extremist groups offer their members precisely what existing societal institutions do not: a tribe, a sense of belonging and purpose, an enemy to hate and kill, and a chance to reverse the group polarity, turning humiliation into superiority and triumph. This is the formula that al-Qaeda and ISIS have exploited.”
Next our attention turns to Venezuela. Here we see the rise of Hugo Chavez to power, someone seen as a dictator by the U.S. but the poor barrios saw someone who looked and spoke like them. The author shows us how from a tribal politics point of view, his rise is simple to explain. This is an interesting story that is covered in detail. From here we segue to the tribal chasm in America. Covered are the Occupy movement, Sovereign Citizens, street gangs, narco-saints, the prosperity gospel, NASCAR nation, and WWE. Also, there is so little interaction between rural/heartland/working-class whites and the urban/coastal whites that the differences between them are, practically, what social scientists would call an ethnic difference. These “coastal elites” are seen as a market-dominant minority from the point of view of America’s heartland. The discussion covers the tribal left and the tribal right along with the impact of identity politics on these tribes.
The author wraps things up noting the heartfelt efforts of people to “reach across the aisle” to understand and empathize with each other’s humanity. But the evidence shows “that when individuals from different groups actually get to know one another as human beings, tremendous progress can be made.” Let’s hope we succeed at this.
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About the author
A dive into the divisiveness of our country
In the book Political Tribes, Amy Chua lays out and discusses the division of the two dominant American political parties as well as mistakes in US foreign policy in regards to Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout history in regards to those three wars, we often were blinded by the fact that we would be hailed as liberators when bringing democracy abroad. But the lack of understanding of the tribalism within those countries, we were doomed to fail. When it comes to understanding where we are now we have to look back to what each “tribe” (political party) feels deep down as the main concerns for the party. What was the stake that was driven into centrists to polarize parties? How do we move forward in a civil manner in order to mend the gap? A very objective book that leaves neither side innocent nor completely guilty.One quote cited in the book stuck with me the most, it was the lead of chapter eight and was an outstanding start to the chapter:“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”-John Adams
Top reviews from other countries
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- Michael DuerdenReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2019
An excellent thought provoking analysis of human tribal instincts backed up with real life examples.
- Simon CantrellReviewed in Germany on August 13, 2018
Easily readable and enjoyable but not definitive.
