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Tribal Instincts – Self Segregation.

This is one of my comments on blog-pal Citizen Duex’s Haze Gray Blog. I don’t even know what the original topic was, but the comments concerning sociology were outstanding. CD and Scoot share their thoughts and experiences of people tending to segregate themselves into groups with which they have similar things in common. Scoot mentions racial comfort zones his students segregate themselves into. CD mentions he’s seen the same thing within the military. I add my two cents worth:

To me it’s the answer to the question of why we have gangs, and why it’s so hard to keep kids from joining…

…And political parties are nothing if no glorified gangs. Why do you think Jeffersons ideal of a partyless American government failed. After the revolutionary war, we were united in victory. Being a humanist and enlightenment fellow, he thought we would resist the baser instincts of tribalism in government, i.e. no political parties. He figured the American revolution was also the casting out of factionalism – that we were all Americans and that would be the glue that kept us together and united. He envisioned a government free of the influence from political parties.

He was wrong. No sooner did we start living with the Articles of Confederation, than we started using the State as the common ground to bond our tribes. Then when we ditched the AoC for the Constitution, arguments over the strength of that government structure created the division that fostered the formation of the stronger govt. Federalist vs the weaker govt. Republicans. Of coarse, Jefferson is probably as reponsible as anyone for the formation of that divide with his behind the scenes machinations against Hamilton (desevred), Adams (misguided), and even a little toward Washington himself (wrongheaded).

PS. To be clear, I’m not dissing TJ, just looking at his role in forming his “gang”.

Are ones choice of “blog-pals” also an example of self-segregation?