Tribe

We have a natural instinct to seek out small groups defined by purpose and understanding, tribes. But this tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, and regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians—but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has long exerted an almost gravitational pull on Westerners, and recent research explains why. The most poignant example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today.