Recently Seth Godin released a book called “Tribes”. Being the influencer that he is, many people have bought into what he is saying. And I do too- mostly. People are individuals, not parts of tribes.
Intrinsically I agree with what Mr. Godin is saying about people organizing into groups. These groups tend to take direction from certain people for particular things. The gripe that I have with him is his usage of the term “tribes”.
Words are very powerful creations. All words have connotations and denotations, undertones and overtones. The word “tribe” historically connotes a primitive group of people who follow a chief. The negative denotation associated with this word indicates savagery and a blind adherence to a higher power.
The overtone indicated with this word alludes to a group of people being led around blindly, believing in the leader thus having no reason to question authority. The insidious undertone attached to this word harkens back to a time where groups like this gave in to a mob mentality and inflicted numerous atrocities on fellow humans out of zealotry and mainly religious beliefs.
Overall the word “tribe” isn’t a dynamic one. Some positive replacements are: kindred, association, society, alliance, fellowship, cooperative, league, coalition, partners. It took me less than one minute to check thesaurus.com for these. If you choose a certain word (especially for your title) you should make sure it is the most appropriate word for the situation.
The bottom line is this: Think before you speak. There is always someone watching. And regardless of whether someone is watching, you should strive to always be the best you that you can be.
What goes into your mind, comes out of your mouth, gets committed into writing, turns into action. You are what you believe. How do you represent yourself?
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Great post! Very thought provoking as well as super insight into the value, power, and influence of words. Very well, said…be careful what you say, how you say it, and how it is taken. Perception is reality.
Andrew
@tufadvisor
While I must preface my comment by admitting that I have not yet read Godin’s book, as an uninitiated I have to agree with your characterization of Godin’s choice of the word “tribe” to write about his concept. Of course this terminology works, in his context, I just can’t help but wonder if he could not have chosen a term with less intrinsic “colonialist educating the poor uneducated savages who don’t know any better” overtones / connotations. As you so rightly point out in your conclusion, “Think before you speak / write”; I completely agree.
Agreeing with you in concept, your historical metaphor to tribes and chiefs is off.
Tribes do not follow a leader. Tribes choose a person to lead them, and the leader either accepts or rejects the offer. That’s how it was in nomadic times and that’s how it is now.
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Damien, excellent points about:
1} blind following
“Don’t believe anything I say. Find your own experience.” A core teaching of Zen. It’s also a core theme in the major conflicts of world history.
2} the importance of selecting your words
Wordsmithing is quite an art and one that seems to be a skill of few rather than most. Its power lies in its subtlety.
Thanks for a thoughtful post.
I was thinking the same thing when I seen the tribes book. Much like how Seth Godin’s following goes, it seems like the tribe he describes has one head and a bunch of followers.
I think for a group of people to work well together and build something powerful or do something amazing, they need to all be the head of the group. Similar to how Lucky Luciano did with the Mafia when he came to power. He ruled that no one would be the head leader anymore and that everyone had an equal voice.
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Damien
As always we are in sync on this issue. Choosing the word first to express the concept would have been a great start.
Given the high profile of the book and the way it is being marketed, I not only take issue with the word but the way it is used to market at an emotional level. Human beings naturally seek associations to belong to, many of them will always seek some form of recognition. Typing people as “Tribal Leaders”, meets that emotional need and sells them on the hype of being “Noble” in the “Noble Savage” manner.
For me this is not only a bad choice of words, its a deliberate choice to assist in the marketing of a book that is in reality a fairly shallow exploration of group behavior that any student of anthropology or sociology can pick apart in under 5 mins.
Simon Salt’s last blog post..Tribes: This is Not The Term You Are Looking For
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