Tribe is widely considered to be a seminal work on issues facing Veterans of the Global War on Terror as they transition out of the military and return to American society at large. Junger uses examples of both historic tribal cultures and tribe-like aspects of modern communities to describe the primal attraction humans have toward belonging to a community greater than themselves, and how that relates to the sense of alienation some Veterans feel upon reintegrating into a peacetime America. Tribe serves as an important window into tribal culture, but Junger’s limited frame of reference and reluctance to examine social issues that have stained the fabric of modern American society prevent it from being a work that posits actionable solutions to the problems described.
The main point of contention with Tribe is Junger’s perspective as a journalist who has no firsthand experience of being part of the tightly-knit community he lauds as the human ideal. His writing takes on a voyeuristic tone as he describes the various iterations of tribal virtues in communities ranging from First Nations to the modern American military. While Tribe may provide perspective for those living as outsiders intrigued by tribal concepts, there is little information to glean from the text for those who have experienced them firsthand. In this respect, Junger’s approach to Tribe is much like LTC Dave Grossman’s approach to On Killing, as both authors attempt to explain what needs no explanation for those who have experienced the subject (and for those who haven’t, no explanation can sufficiently convey the experience), and both fall flat as a result.
Junger falls into the journalistic trap of being so fascinated by what he has observed that he paints the picture of a Utopian tribal society of sexual egalitarianism and communal prosperity. He uses case studies of communities under intense external pressure, particularly London during the Blitz and Sarajevo during the fall of Yugoslavia, to showcase communities forming tribe-like bonds when their backs were up against a collective wall. He seems so intent on selling the idea of tribal collectivism as the solution to problems of internal social strife that he misses some of the finer grain details of tribal existence that do not exist in Western society in general, and American society in-particular. Modern America is devoid of institutionalized rites of passage for young men, which is a critical component of preparing boys to assume responsibility for the security and prosperity of the tribe. Junger briefly discusses the youthful impulses of boys seeking out those rites of passage, and how they often manifest self-destructively in modern times as drinking, brawling, and rebelling against authority. For unknown reasons, he avoids deeper discussion of the challenges faced by boys raised without a definitive social boundary between the carefree nature of boyhood and the social responsibility of manhood.
Had Junger taken the time to examine this aspect of tribal identity more closely, he would have discovered a very profound reason for the gulf between Veterans and civilian society at large: Veterans undertook that rite of passage, in the form of foundational military training and overseas deployments, while many of their peers remained schoolboys. Four years after high school, Veterans have undergone a transformational experience with very strong tribal elements while their college-bound peers have another certificate of satisfactory rote memorization. Western society fails its own primal humanity in its stated preference and social reward for the collegiate path as a surrogate rite of passage for young adults, and young men in-particular.
When Junger does attempt to tackle Veterans’ social issues, he does so from the aloof perspective of a self-avowed draft dodger who decided to be a spectator of someone else’s war, rather than fight his own. Though he does an admirable job of exposing the myths surrounding Veteran suicide statistics and Veteran’s Administration disability fraud, his proposed solution to the issues facing returning war veterans as they reintegrate into civilian society is laughable. Using town hall-style forums to give Veterans a platform for talking about war with civilians not only fails to bridge the Veteran-civilian gap due to the inability of even the most eloquent speaker to convey the experience of war in a meaningful way, such a forum nothing to address deeper issues of identity that many veterans struggle with during transition. The question is not, “How does a warrior find a tribe after leaving the military?” The better question is, “What is a warrior when he’s no longer a warrior?” Junger merely glosses over the fact that many of the tribal societies he fetishizes still had use for their warriors’ martial skills when they came back from war, continually validating their hard skill competence and overall capability. This validation is one reason why many returning Veterans transition into careers as law enforcement officers, firearms instructors, and private security contractors.
For all of its shortcomings, Tribe’s real value lies in being a window into how an outsider views tribal culture. Junger’s romanticization of the tribe as the apogee of the human communal experience paints a picture that may inspire people to seek out their own tribe, though his inability to adequately describe the intensity of the individual’s responsibility to his tribe may lead to surprise and disappointment upon initiation into a true tribal society. Nonetheless, Tribe is essentially an introductory text into the practice of eschewing the globalist trappings of modern society, and primes the reader for deeper, more useful reading into concepts of community and belonging.
The part about the lack of a rite of passage for young men made me think of this article: https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2018/4/26/first-light-hunting-is-a-cultural-reality-check/
It also makes me think about how everyone, but boys in particular, used to grow up faster. Yes, life was harder and life was shorter, but does that change the fact that “kids” are capable of a lot more than we as a culture typically credit them with or make them responsible for? George Washington inherited a farm from his deceased father at 11, taught himself geometry and surveying, and was on a month-long expedition in the then-wilderness west of the Blue Ridge Mountains by the time he was 16. “Buffalo” Bill Cody was fighting Indians by 11, riding for the Pony Express at 14, and scouting and seeing action in the Union army before he was 18. And there are many more examples to be found. Sometimes our ancestors didn’t have official rites of passage, but they were just expected to step up earlier and more often. Thus when they were confronted with something that would have otherwise seemed daunting, it wasn’t.
Today life isn’t nearly as hard. But many have made it quite soft by avoiding trials and challenges and teaching kids to do the same, rather than seeking those opportunities out and growing through them.