Tribe and I

India has a culture that's more oriented toward the collective rather than the individual. The needs of the many always take priority over the needs of the few. This seems to be quite common in Asia as a whole. Perhaps due to the overabundance of people, there are less natural resources and opportunities as there are more mouths to feed and greater competition in all endeavors. On the other hand, people are also considered a great resource in themselves in these places. It makes sense then, to try to accommodate and make allowances for as many people as possible, in hopes of keeping the peace. Yet the people are very diverse here as well. Its history was wrought with endless conflicts between many of those groups. Some are old, others new. Some conquerors while others ex-rulers. When the Britishers came and gave us a common enemy, people got together one way or another. They still disliked those who were different, but all of them were forced to bow in front of this new power.

Interests were aligned and oppression paved the way for some form of unity. Personally, I still see remnants of that slave mentality today. The country might have attained freedom, but there seems to be a lack of a coherent national identity. While that history doesn't necessarily explain much about collective thinking, I was kind of hoping that seeing it on paper would give me a clue. It didn't. Nevertheless, there seems to be a new wave of influence now. Today, it's the oppression of the dollar that keeps us together. It's the hope of economic development and future prosperity that motivates our current endeavors. Money is the new common language, and the ones who bring it with them are the most sacred guests of honor. But then again, there is immense competition everywhere you look, so more and more often, people feel the need to tread their own path when it comes to gaining riches.

Most realize that owning your own business or having a job only you can do is one of the best ways to earn money. And make no mistake, we are all getting swept away by this capitalistic wave. More and more, it is making us individualistic. So we have a broken national identity, a lack of any real roots, and the individualistic culture of self-preservation is eating away at any real forms of connection. Everything is becoming a competition, all interactions become power struggles where players gauge each other out in order to ensure their own success. This is all anyone seems to be concerned with. It troubles me to see this. My sense is that people that were never really that close to begin with are now growing further apart. It feels like the world is becoming crueler. 

Perhaps it's the experience of reading 48 Rules of Power, but I feel like I am getting crueler. It's not just me, all my friends seem to be spending more and more time with bolstering their finances. Not to blame them, I'm honestly attempting to do the same, after all, we really need a stable source of income to live to the fullest, and that's becoming surprisingly rare. I'm out here writing every day in hopes of one day achieving a decent income from doing something that seems bearable to me. I'm sure everyone else is doing the same. What saddens me quite often, is that the idea of a tribe seems long gone. I've barely felt it in my own life, and I don't see it getting any better. We seem to be outsourcing love to online creators and parasocial relationships, while we are working hard to build the foundations of our own businesses.

Everything feels so cut and dry, it's all quid-pro-quo, cost-benefit, SWAT analyses, and contractual agreements. We are all individuals who want to belong to a tribe. We all want to stand out and feel seen, heard, and held by others that we respect. I thought that building my own tribe was the best option, and I'm sure many others feel the same. Looking at all these creators, it seems like things work out when you stick in the same place for a long time and do the same thing until you get good at it. Everything reeks of death. Seems like there was a time when the world took care of itself and you just had to look after your own needs. Now, it seems like you have to take care of every single thing or it all falls apart. Love is just another thing on that list. 

Your relationships, just another item to cross off the list. No wonder people say fuck it. No wonder they let it go to hell.