So what’s the big advantage to living in a group? Division of labor. Now this doesn’t mean assembly lines and shouldn’t. Assembly lines and the hierarchy of the industrial revolution exist to maximize output. Doing that outstrips the land base. It damages the land for future generations. It creates uncrowned kings of industry. So no, we are not recommending that sort of division of labor.
In most tribal cultures, women did the gathering and men the hunting. Gathering is less dangerous and less athletic. Women were before the only ones who could nurse children. And so the women tended to perform gathering with their children in a sling. They would gather with children in tow. The men tended to the hunting. This produced less calories on a consistent basis. But hunting could provide great sources of fat and protein, especially in the winter. This is the division that we are looking at. The gender divide is incidental. But by working tribally with other free peoples, people can focus on tribal activities that they are good at and actually enjoy.
The activities that are useful to divide amongst the tribe are as follows. Speak truth. Keep learning. Repair damage. Tell stories. Stand strong. Nurture life, and Seek insight. Two of those activities The tribe should entrust to everyone. They are the last two: nurture life and seek insight. Seeking insight means to look for news ways and better ways and things. Modern culture gives this responsibility away to experts. In so doing we give away the ability to take our life into our own hands. Nurturing life means to build systems so that we need less work to maintain life and be self-sufficient year after year. It means looking beyond mere survival. It means seeking methods of living that grow roots and give less work and more leisure next year. Modern life encourages us to sell our time to buy our leisure. This is an irony, because we are selling our leisure time to buy it back later. And we only do this because we have not invested time in nurturing life. So these two roles are last on the list because they are universal. Assigning them to individuals destroys a community. It creates hierarchy and leads back to kingships.
Now to the other five. Tribes would benefit by encouraging everyone to work on these roles. But assigning people to them will help keep these roles well supported in the community. And thus they help keep the community whole. These are responsibilities, not powers or authorities. The authority in any egalitarian group needs to lie with the tribe. This is is why tribes must limit themselves to human scales.
Speaking Truth means saying what is true even if unpopular. This was the point of the court fool, and trickster figures of mythology. Those who take the role of speaking truth need to say unpopular things. They rely on the understanding that this is their role. Keep learning means the obvious. The benefit of librarians and scholars in modern society is immeasurable. Any community should maintain this. There is to be no police force with a protected monopoly of the use of force in an egalitarian society. But tribes can use mediators who solve problems and repair the damage of conflicts. No power comes with this role. The tribe and those involved are the arbiters. But having people to accept responsibility for managing the process is powerful. Telling stories is how humans think and learn and remember. Transforming events and history into story preserves them. It mythologizes the story in ways humans need. Stand strong is a broad term applied to methods of defending the tribe. Now everyone should be able to defend themselves. But defending a group requires coordination and leaders. About 3 to 5% of the population are natural born warriors. They don’t get combat fatigue. They don’t tend to get PTSD. This makes them tailor made for the role of tribal guardians and natural leaders in times of strife. These same people do horrible things as CEOs and so forth. This is again why they need a clear role that they can fit into. This is why it is critical that the authority and the power to use force reside in the individuals.
Professor Harbinger's School for Villains 