A Tribe to Belong With

In the novel “The Diamond Age” Neal Stephenson describes a future where nation-states as we know them have been dissolved. People then form associations that are much more independant of geography. These association are tribal, that is, they are nations in the sense of having a common culture and common values, yet the members of these tribes can be distributed throughout the world.

This way of associating with others appeals to me because I feel like I am a man without a country. I have lived in the same city for most of my life, yet I find that I don’t share the culture or the values that most people in this city do. The City and state that I live in is very near to the Mexican border, yet I realize that I know less of the news and issues of Mexico than I do those of England or Austrailia. Through the internet I feel much more connected to the best elements of the anglosphere than with my more provincial home town. On the other hand England, Austrailia and the intellectual hubs of America seem to be ruled by people with values that are strongly at odds with those I hold. I believe that bad government is running my culture into the ground. For these reasons I hope that I can make connections with like-minded others.

There are three tribes described in “The Diamond Age” that I think I might be able to belong in; the neovictorians, the distributed free republic and dovetail.

Dovetail is essentially a symbiotic tribe, a craftsman’s co-op. It would not be able to exist on its own but needs a strong and wealthy tribe like the neovictorians.

The Neovictorians had some sophisticated arguments in their favor. They were industrious and apparently rewarded themselves well for it. There were many things about the stratification and the upper eschelons of their society that I did not understand from the hints Stephenson dropped in his efforts to flesh out the story. Also, I think that part of the point of the story was that life was more chaotic than the victorians ridgid formalism enabled them to deal with, but I’m not sure of that. The largest problem I find with the victorians is that adhereing to traditions for the good of society does not seem to be compatible with a questioning scientific outlook.

Stephenson mentions several problems with the first distributed republic in the book; that without a loyalty ritual the tribe has too little holding it together, and that its lax values don’t make it very rugged.

Now I get to the part where I can actually describe the “Distinguishing Details” of my tribe. Well, a tribe is a culture, and the chief thing that members of one culture have in common is a language, so my tribe is the tribe of English-speaking people. My tribe would uphold personal freedom as a high value. My tribe has its roots in the tradition of English law, and cherishes the values learned in the broadest possible reading of the American Bill of Rights. It upholds the notion that every human being is equal to every other in authority by access to reason and effective arms. My tribe is violently opposed to censorship, recognises private property as superior to faddish ideas about the general welfare, and perhaps above all, upholds freedom of thought. Freedom of thought means to us; that you can think what you please, that ideas and information can never in themselves be criminal or wrong, that it is never right to attempt force to get someone to give you information that they refuse, that your faith, belief and religion are your business as an individual, and that it is wrong to force anyone to support something that they believe is wrong. In short, there is no thoughtcrime, there is no “criminal knowledge”, torture is prohibited, there is complete freedom of religion, and freedom of concience.

I have further ideas but this will have to suffice for now.

Six years ago I would have been convinced that I could, with time, specify everything myself and that it could all be made to fit together, each idea having a defensible metaphysical origin and every idea following from that origin in a perfectly tuned chain of logic. I no longer commit this rationalist fallacy. I realize now that this task is not only beyond me, but may be beyond the whole human race. Given what little I know, I realize that a culture worthy of belonging to would have much to teach me. I know but little of the history of that people I wish to belong with.

If you feel like you too are a member of this culture, part member, former member, future member or admirer, then please share your own ideas. And I would like to hear as well from people who want to join other tribes, to the extent that discussion and exposure to other mindsets could be fruitful.