This is a necessity if you want to be a moderate.  It is necessary if you want to be accurate about your view of the world and what is likely to produce the best and fairest outcome.  There is a lot of pressure exerted by groups that have strong idealistic feelings. ‘Either you are in, or you are out’, is the most common tool.  Those groups are the bulldozers of society, pushing people to where they think they should be, or simply getting for themselves. Those groups are made more effective by their monotone and cohesive action.  It is even almost a certainty that our evolution has selected for humanity to have these cohesive tribal tendencies. In evolution, it is better to be successful than right, or fair. In fact, numerical success is just about all that matters.  Of course it gets more complicated because if a species becomes too ‘successful’ and causes the collapse of other species that they depend on, it will turn out poorly in the long run. All animals depend on other species. Everything is a balance; perhaps a little moderation is good even in evolution.  For humans, any tendency or ideology that promotes tribal cohesion is a power multiplier and a competitive advantage.  However, I think that being a slave to our evolution is not desirable.  Why do I think that? That is actually a difficult one to answer.  Perhaps it is that I have expanded my tribe to be all of humanity and all cultures, not just the ones that will benefit myself and ‘protect me and mine’ from the ‘others’.  Why have I done that? I can not answer that one with a short, precise answer. I’m not even sure I have an answer, but I am very sure that my position is the one that I want to have.  There is now a major political movement that thinks that my position is a mistake.  They pose that it should be ‘our tribe over the others’, that is wholesome and good.  Perhaps think about what you want your tribe to be and how it is that you drew your boundaries.

If we were more cognizant of the forces that have shaped us over the last 70,000 years, we might be more willing to recognize the tendencies and prejudices that we think we have complete self control over.  We might even realize how arbitrary some of our tribal choices can be, and how likely we are to tumble into one tribe or the other at the beginning, and then slowly solidify into staunch support and belief.

Moderates don’t tend to have impressive rallying cries.  Perhaps “Putting the Mod back in Moderate!”   I’ll start making signs.