Tribes
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more so than others. It is much more certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless. – Bertrand Russell
Over the last few weeks there has been no end to the drama which has been unfolding in the health care debates. Debates of course being a very generous term. What we are seeing is pent up outrage over what people believe they are going to lose, or not going to gain. If there is one thing we can all count on, as much as death and taxes, is that the more a group of people has to gain or lose, the more they will fight to capitalize or preserve their situation. In the case of the US health care reform / health insurance reform there are plenty of groups to “go to work.”
This goes well beyond democratic and republican parties. Insurance companies, lawyers, doctors, those with insurance, those without insurance, seniors, pediatrics, wealthy, poor, blue collar, white collar – literally everyone has a stake in this reform.
President Obama showed the world how effective using the new social technologies are to organizing a group of people to accomplish great things – even help win a presidency. The lessons learned from this, especially among the more deep pocketed constituencies, have not been lost. I am sure that the social technologies (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are in overdrive.
Among the interesting aspects related to the forming of tribes around a cause (described so brilliantly by Seth Godin in his book “Tribes”) is that they are largely invisible to the mass media. They stay under the radar of the mainstream. It is only after the fact that we learn of the activities which were undertaken by the group, if we learn of them at all. While it is true that anyone can lead a group, imagine the power which can be assembled with an already established special interest group, with a lot of motivation, and deep pockets.
We already know there are plenty of special interest groups in play. So where are all the Tribes? Maybe one day we will find out – or not. Without concrete evidence of these underground organizations being active in our public debates, how do we know they exist. I guess we would call this… faith. Faith in human nature.
