Tribes are collectives. The collectivist foundation of tribal demarcations and conflicts is rarely recognized or understood. As opportunities, production, and wealth are allocated to those who objectively have not earned them—a cornerstone of collectivism—a potential recipient’s tribe often becomes the key distributive determinant. By definition, a process that is not objective will be subjective, governed by favoritism and prejudice. Resurgent tribalism represents a huge step backwards and comes at the expense of the smallest tribe: the individual.
Human history is almost entirely tribal, the actions—mostly war and conquest—of racial, ethnic, national, and smaller collectives. The intellectual seeds of universal individual rights didn’t germinate until the Renaissance, blossom until the Enlightenment, or bear fruit until the American Revolution. The notion of individual responsibility stems from prehistoric times, but it was the responsibility of an individual to the tribe and its sovereign. A manifestation of reciprocal individual responsibilities—mutually enforceable promises between equals—did not become the foundation of contract law until the nineteenth century.
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