David Ronfeldt: Readings on tribes & tribalism
[ by Charles Cameron — a catch-up post ]
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Despite his modest comments to the contrary, David Ronfeldt has in fact been posting up a storm on his Materials for Two Theories blog, bringing us up to date with his readings on tribalism as the key aspect of his TIMN (tribes, hierarchical institutions, markets, and networks) theory.
Just as I keep harping on the significance of — and our tendency to overlook — religious and particularly apocalyptic drivers across a range of problematic issues, so David relentlessly points to the significance of — and our tendency to overlook — tribalism as a key form in understanding many of those same issues.
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Most recent:
David’s two most recent posts are of particular interest.
#14: Richard Landes’s “How Thinking Right Can Save the Left” (2015)
Richard Landes, in addition to his encyclopedic work on apocalyptic matters, is the proponent of a game theoretical approach to the Israeli-Pakestinian question with considerable overlap with David’s focus on tribalism — regarding the core issue as that of a clash between zero-sum and win-win players, in which concessions made by the win-win player, in expectation of reciprocal concessions, are taken as victories, requiring no re ciprocation, by the zero-sum player.
I hope I got that right, albeit in very simplified / condensed form
Mark Weiner‘s entry is the one which comes closest to David’s TIMN work, and David accordingly uses parallels as a means of outside confirmation of certain of his own insights.
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The full monte:
Here, for your convenience, are David’s recent tribalism posts — some items deal specifically with America, one with Britain, and others are more general, but I have grouped them all together in the order of posting since David issued them as a numbered series:
Intro and #1: Sabrina Tavernise, “One country, two tribes” (2017) #2: David Roberts, “Donald Trump and the rise of tribal epistemology” (2017 #3: Daniel Shapiro, “Modern tribes – the new lines of loyalty” (2008) #4: Charlie Sykes, “Where the Right Went Wrong” (2016) #5: Ben Shapiro, “The Revenge of Tribalism” (2016) #6: Robert Reich, “The New Tribalism and the Decline of the Nation State” (2014) #7: Glenn Harlan Reynolds, “Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare” (2014) #8: Jonathan Haidt & Ravi Iyer, “How to Get Beyond Our Tribal Politics” (2016) #9: Deepak Chopra, “After Trump, What Will It Take To Heal?” (2016) #10: Jalaja Bonheim, “Why We Love Trump” (2016) #11: NeoTribes, “NeoTribal Emergence” (2016) #12: Ross Douthat, “The Myth of Cosmopolitanism” (2016) #13: Kenan Malik, “Britain’s Dangerous New Tribalism” (2015) #14: Richard Landes’s “How Thinking Right Can Save the Left” (2015) #15: Mark Weiner’s “The call of the clan: why ancient kinship and tribal affiliation still matter in a world of global geopolitics” (2013)
August 9th, 2017 at 3:14 pm
Wow! A delight to see. Much appreciated. I’ve a few more readings to add. Then I’d better get back to explaining a la TIMN why I’m doing this, why it matters. Onward, despite my slowed state…
August 10th, 2017 at 6:16 pm
Two supplements to #15 above, now posted:
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#16 Interview by Deven Desai, “Bright Ideas: Mark Weiner on his new book Rule of the Clan” (2013)
#17 Mark Weiner, “The Paradox of Modern Individualism” (2014)
August 23rd, 2017 at 8:12 pm
Charles,
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Thanks for the post. David Ronfeldt along with Mac McCallister, Steven Pressfield and TE Lawrence molded my early thinking on tribes and tribalism. I owe a lot of my deepest thinking to David R. – and his insight continues to make the muddy waters of tribes and tribalism a bit more clear.
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A salute to David.
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Hope you are feeling well.
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Keep up the great work!
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Jim