Youth, Gangs, and Tribalism

How can a culture prevent its youth from becoming alienated and forming anti-social gangs? Does the Tribal Programming Theory of Human Behavior provide any insight?

The theory suggests that, as tribal territorial animals, human beings cannot function without a supporting tribe, and will compulsively seek one that allows them to be a participating member: that is, to not merely be in the tribe, but to be a functioning part of it. Without the feeling of being a needed or at least appreciated tribe member, we will consciously or unconsciously begin searching for another tribe where we do fit in.

Throughout the millennia of our evolution, youth typically were needed and appreciated members of their tribes, and were counted upon to perform roles necessary to the tribe’s survival: they were groomed to take over the adult roles, and knew they would eventually become the tribe’s leaders and elders.

Once we evolved to having large urban societies, excess goods, and time not dedicated entirely to survival, it became possible for a tribe’s youth to become less needed and less appreciated as essential members. That is likely when the ongoing phenomenon of semi-autonomous youthful subtribes living by their own (inevitably primitive) codes of conduct arose.

Now, in our twenty-first century sophistication, we’re being forever startled by each new manifestation of violent street gangs – sometimes female – and of privileged upper-middleclass kids discovering some new way to exhibit bestiality. The Tribal Theory reminds us: we are riders on wild beasts that can run wild if not controlled by tribal rules, tribal beliefs. The Lord of the Flies is fiction … but true.

If you wonder about the lesser but still puzzling behavior of youth-not-quite-gangs, with their bizarre dress and strange decorations, that too is explained by the Tribal Theory. Tribe members compulsively adopt the distinctive markings of their tribe, and when our children begin dressing differently than we like – and become unreachable through reason – it is telling us that we are no longer their primary tribe, and that they henceforth will be adopting the beliefs and behavior of their new tribe. … For breakaway tribes, flaunting new tribal customs and costumes is de rigueur.

Given our new awareness of how influential tribal instincts are upon Man’s behavior, we should now work at conceiving ways to work with our instincts to achieve goals, rather than against them. That means that to overcome the violent and depraved behavior of youth gangs and subcultures, ways must be found to integrate them usefully and importantly into the web of our culture, and conditions that allow them to “exist” as standalone tribes must somehow be overcome. (And, yes, the advent of the Internet, cell phones, iPods, et al. make this incredibly difficult.) Nonetheless, this is our reality, and the first step is to recognize and acknowledge the source of the problem – our tribal nature.