In light of the Muslim invasion of Europe, and all of the nasty fallout from it, I keep running across Western analysis that suggests the single biggest problem is that tribal folks aren’t altruistic the way Westerners are. This is, at best, a half-truth.
These analysts point out that in Western societies, random neighbors tend to trust each other much more quickly, in part because they are all socialized to care about each other. What they are describing is not altruism; it’s social conditioning about “being nice.” They trust each other because everyone has been hammered with social customs, backed up by laws, that demand a very strict and orderly social behavior pattern. They aren’t altruistic; they are conformist pawns.
That behavior pattern stands because the elite demand it, and enforce it with violence. Plutocrats cannot make money unless folks surrender their moral boundaries to become malleable. The elites demand that everyone be mobile and as isolated as possible so that they can be steered into economic activity that benefits the plutocrats. Were Westerners more clannish and defensive, the plutocrats couldn’t take control so easily. Thus, instead of small tribes, they insist that the whole nation is one single tribe. They propagate this ideal with zeal and force so that it is taught in schools and churches and just about every other conditioning institution in society.
It looks like peace and prosperity, but this presumed efficiency comes at the price of dehumanizing the entire population. Indeed, it simply is not possible to have that level of prosperity without dehumanizing the people. Thus, the entire range of “successful” Western societies is also the most materialistic and secularized. A genuine faith is disemboweled in favor of a cerebral false religion of material efficiency.
To go a bit further, the Western analysts are wrong in lumping ANE tribal culture with the corruption and distrust that makes places like India and Africa so materially poor. The Hebrew tribal culture was covenant-centered. The concept of covenant is utterly absent in places like India and Africa. The ANE wasn’t so corrupt and poverty stricken for their times; they were quite prosperous when they were faithful to the Covenant.
If you evaluate things from a Western materialistic point of view, you will never understand why the West is dying. If you evaluate things from the ANE mystical point of view, you realize that we can afford to have a little less material wealth in favor of a high moral culture that brings glory to God. We are all better off when our way of life reflects the fundamental nature of reality as God made it.
I would say that a big difference is also in the historical cousin marriage rate of Islamic/Christian civilizations. Not all socialization, but underlying genetics as well. European genetics and high trust societies may not survive the infusion of more tribal genetics that were “developed” in different circumstances.
Admittedly this is quite reductionistic and biological thinking, but it usually plays a part as well, I think.
This is not to say that there is not currently something seriously wrong culturally and spiritually with the Western socities as well, but it’s complicated. Genetics developed in relative isolation and social conditioning have their part.
Yes, we cannot dismiss genetics, but my point was the abuse made of high trust. Some folks seem to think high trust is a mark of moral superiority, but it’s a weakness being exploited. The remedy is not fighting tooth and nail for every scrap, but of recognizing the limitations and counting the cost. Scripture draws the picture of Israel as a low-trust bunch of people, yet they were at times able to function with great generosity and sacrificial openness that remained morally guarded. I am convinced the human race as a whole can learn where to place trust. High-trust societies need to close the moral portals more tightly; low-trust societies need to worry less about material welfare.