I often find myself agreeing with Russell, but not on this. Tribalism can work on a very small scale, it can also be a disaster when it is based on insulation and authoritarianism.

My response to him is quoted below. (edited)

We will never truly have peace on this planet while tribalism holds sway. Indeed we have that now (The 1 percent, the upper middle class, working class, etc.). That is not to say that we can't differentiate into groups of interests and communities, but there must be common values and a common identity that we agree to share globally.

We can't escape our shared ecosystem. Ultimately we need to learn to abhor some ideas, celebrate others, and balance most.

This requires an emotional(spiritual) and intellectual maturity.

We live in the same environment; we can pretend it is segmented into discreet parcels; but our water and air, indeed our soil, cycle and run into each other, depend on each other. If we do not adopt a global ethos then we will inevitably be competing and fighting over how we use our environment; because to live, we use it.

Most of our problems and strife, as Joel Bakan alludes to, stem from the fear that 'who we are' is going to get pushed out, largely because the overwhelming number of us cannot compete or fit into a Corporatist society.

Calling what our economy has become Capitalist is an insult Adam Smith. Corporatism indeed has more in common with one-party ruled tyrannical governments than a nation of moral shop owners. This is why so many of us on the left now find ourselves agreeing with those on right. Only the terrified and indoctrinated would ever agree to being lorded over (by the likes of Walmart and Costco, turn over their bodies to known criminal organizations, like most of the pharmaceuticals. KNOWN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS, criminal because of institutional murder and irreversible bodily harm.)

Fear can protect you from a lion, or keep you from testing if maybe you really can fly, and have simply forgotten, but it can also have you running into the dragon's mouth for the promise of warmth.

How do we take away survival fears? Motivate people to contribute but still leave them feeling free? Give them something to strive for and maintain the sense of belonging. Attend to physical and mental health.

          

Robotics and mechanization may very well help get us there. A Universal Basic Income, if we continue to promote symbolic currency and trade, will ease fear and resistance.

We can ensure food and shelter for everyone, even if they don't want to contribute to currency trade. This will mean safer and cleaner streets, savings to our social services and policing. But that only gets us half way there and does not allow us to truly reap the benefits (of social spending).


Me. I am not a big shopper. (I spend most of my currency on quality food.) What keeps me happy and content and still creating, besides meditation, is learning and sharing what I have learned with like-minded people though discussion and writing.

Here comes my vision of the future ...

We could build our (urban) societies around libraries, universities, and trade schools. People will create naturally and pro-socially. (Share with the world at large with an open and free internet; free and environmentally-responsible global travel.) We could have a rapidly but responsibly evolving world built around learning and creating.

Throw in exercise; take away junk food (or most of it, and trust me it is not just what you think it is); and stop encouraging regular inebriation for profit sake. Good living really does feel better than intoxication.

Set aside every roof for food production or energy capture.

It doesn't matter if some just want to read books or sunbathe. Because the creators will keep creating; the doers will do; And one never knows where a good idea will come from, the thinkers will think.

I know this because this is true for me. I do, think, share, and create even without the promise of ludicrous wealth as my reward. And without money as my end goal, I create and think more freely and authentically. My goals: beauty, truth, and enlightenment (emotional and intellectual).

Even attention isn't much of a drive for me anymore.

We can build incredibly beautiful cities with fresh water and homes for everyone. Where science is practiced for truth and utility and not profit. An amazing side effect to education and creating is that it quite naturally brings down birth rates. True Story.

Maybe also throw in a lot of hot tubs to limit accidental reproduction.

Those who a majority agree contribute more than others, get better views and access to learning resources; those better at making decisions that benefit the whole get a greater part of the decision-making process.

At this level of organization, these will be the people gifted at obtaining consensus and not money and power mongers.

Our leaders will guide counsels and not rule parties; dupe and manipulate voters.

Let the majority of nature be wild, and any human that wants to live that way some, or all of the time, let them be wild too, but they will have to live off the land and with limited access to the technology the cities create. This kind of survival doesn't leave much time for anything else. Wild nature will rule them, and she is very good at making one feel free but still balancing herself with natural death and renewal.

Welcome those into the cities who want to embrace civilization (at any time.)

There may be a place for small scale free enterprise. I don't know. I am not ideologically against Capitalism. It has just so obviously morphed into corporate authoritarianism.

That definitely doesn't work.

We could create this world now; we have the technology; we have the thinkers; the inventors and the teachers; the only thing stopping us is Corporatism.

The drive for wealth based on currency and currency profit above all other ethos that define Corporatism, and not Globalism, is a net drain on ingenuity, the root of most suffering, and certainly a grave threat to every life on this planet.

Globalism is being scapegoated like so many other examples of rational thinking these day. Of course, we have to create a functional form of Globalism or continue to tear each other apart and our world with it.

Technology will not allow us to go backwards; it will allow us to pursue corruption to death, but it will not allow us to live in isolation.

It's one world and we are one people whether we acknowledge it or not. Any workable solutions must include the whole.

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