Finding a Tribe

Everybody needs a tribe. But I don't think I really have one. Sometimes I go and visit their campfires. But at the end of the night, I go back to my lone tepee on the hill. Big tribes go to war with other tribes in attempts to expand their cultural influence, like Liberals vs. Conservatives or Marvel Comics vs. DC Comics. But tribes of with the sum of one are either converted or forgotten. I find no appeal in the surrounding societies, so I choose to be a wanderer. 

In visiting local settlements, I always pay attention to their customs, arts, beliefs, and deities. If you are familiar with these aspects of their lives, it becomes easy to predict their actions and associations. One tribe I sometimes visit is comprised of people mostly of Americans born after 1995. Knowing their heritage and age, it's safe to assume their cultural mores include Nickelodeon's Spongebob, YouTube, hipster fashions, Spotify music, iPhones, and Harry Potter obsessions. While I do like the new actor who plays Spiderman in Spiderman: Homecoming, I can't live among them.  It seems everybody is free to talk about TV, sports, and the latest celebrity scandal, but it is taboo to talk about deeper subjects like faith in God, personal responsibility, and economic principles of prosperity.

I don't partake in the shallowness of my generation. They don't read. And those who do read, read trivial novels about vampires, wizards, lost love, or deep-cut anime. I have read my share of young adult fiction, but I wouldn't claim it as part of my identity. Whereas on the flip side, I am an alien to that culture because I read An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith for fun and because I wanted to be wise. I haven't met anyone else who has done that. I don't say that out of pride, but more out of a morose loneliness that so few of my peers share my values, feelings, and worldviews. 

Another major area where I differ from the tribes of the world is in education. They think they have to get a diploma to say they are educated and I radically disagree. Until recently, I planned not to go to college. Man, the looks on people's faces when I told them I wasn't going! They thought I was some kind of civilization wrecker; that I hated wisdom and knowledge and was doomed to selling cigarettes behind the gas station counter. Well, in response to that, I say that Socrates was a stone cutter, Cinncinatus was a farmer, Mahommed couldn't read, Shakespeare was a plebeian, George Washington quit school, Joseph Smith had only two years of formal schooling, Andrew Carnegie worked instead of going to school, Louis Lamore did the same, and modern examples range from Steve Jobs, Robert Downey Jr, and Mark Zuckerberg to name a few. 

I just wish there was a culture that intersected somewhere in the classical mindset. I want to be with ambitious, high moraled people. I want a tribe where wisdom and athleticism are honored. I want to set my tent stakes among people who think business is a great good instead of an evil. I want to have a casual conversation with a friend on the subject of cultural influence. I wish my land had a spirit of freedom and entrepreneurial drive like Mark Twain described in The Gilded Age. The current social justice culture stinks because nobody does anything and no wealth is ever created, only taken from the producer and given to the consumer-parasite. 

If I joined a tribe, it would be comprised of people like the Founding Fathers, or the literary club J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis belonged to (The Inklings). Until then though, I suppose the plan is to lone wolf it and occasionally visit the camps of others. I want a culture I identify with. I guess that's the purpose of this blog, to promote the principles of the old republics and golden age thinking, or, to promulgate the culture I wish existed. This is the creed of my tribe.