My Amazon Review of Amy Chua's "Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations"

The Return of Tribalism

Yale law professor Amy “Tiger Mom” Chua has written an important book on the role of tribalism in our modern world. She demonstrates how U.S. foreign policy went awry in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Venezuela because how we completely failed to understand the tribal motive behind those conflicts. In particular she highlights the role of economically dominant minorities who breed resentment among the broader population. In particular the Vietnam War was more about deposing the economically dominant Chinese minority rather than a struggle for and against communism.

She then moves on to the U.S. where after years of promoting multi-culturalism it is not surprising to see a broad section of the white community seeing themselves as being victimized by an economically dominant coastal elite. But this is not new to the rise of Donald Trump. In the 1990’s we witnessed New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani criticizing a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum that depicted Christ in a jar of urine entitled “Piss Christ.”  The exhibit stood, but what if the museum exhibited “Piss Moses” or “Piss Mohamed.” Later “The Book of Mormon,” a satire on the Mormon religion became a hit Broadway show. I doubt if Broadway would have run “The Book of the Koran.”

What I liked about Chua’s book is that she notes that tribalism through years of evolution is built into the human psyche so we shouldn’t be surprised to see it manifested in the United States. A tribe needs to include and a need to exclude. Quite a bit of this, unfortunately, is based on race.  However, for the most part, we rose above tribalism by establishing a “super group” (her words) to rise above it to become Americans. With the return of tribalism the notion of America is pushed into the background.

I also like her noting that the coastal elites have become a tribe of their own as they dominate most of our culture. On the far left the culture has become so strict that the doctrine of intersectionality, which means to be in our tribe you have to be with us on everything to be with us at all. A world where deviation is not tolerated sounds very much like the worlds of Hitler and Stalin in the 1930s. Unfortunately that is where the left is today. To be sure Amy Chua is not as harsh as me, but is clear-eyed on the issue.

All told, Amy Chua has written an important book about where we are in America today. It should be read in conjunction with the works of NYU professor Jonathan Haidt.

For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R73L2N1MYL46U/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv