We Need Leaders: Behaviour and Tribal Leaders in Modern Society

Just recently I finished a night school course on anthropology.  In this course we studied tribal societies, imperial societies and commercial societies.

As we progressed through the course the textbook (and my teacher) seemed to have such a love for tribes.  They claimed that the tribal society was the most balanced because there was a lack of concentrated social power and that wealth tended to be distributed equally because people only had enough stuff to survive and nothing more.

They claimed that this was how humanity should be and that modern society was unnatural.

IMHO humans naturally divide themselves by organizing into leaders and followers.  In a small scale organization you might have one individual with a slight advantage in social power (maybe he/she is a charismatic person or a smooth talker or they are physically powerful or intelligent), but as you move into larger societies with more people, there will be a proportional increase in leaders and followers.

This puts a very small percentage at the very top.  The smartest/fittest work their way up and the majority stays in the middle, not standing out.

I was watching Dana White’s new video blog and I always admire the way he is simply worshiped.  He doesn’t make any fuss, he doesn’t have an army waiting to hurt you if you don’t listen.  He is a natural tribal leader, and people love to follow him.

This got me to thinking how not only do we compete with each other for dominance, we NEED leaders.  We love leaders, we want people who are out there taking chances so we can align with them.  Dana gives the public so much access to his most mundane daily tasks, but people love to watch (including me).  They want to have their picture taken with him as if they were kow towing to a king.

This reinforces to me the natural division of society and that while you might hate people who are ‘personalities’ or you think you could do what Dana White does, you are probably wrong.  The dedication, the drive, the skills and the timing will never be there for you.  If you had to live a day in a tribal leaders shoes you would go scrambling back to your farm and thank your lucky stars you are a simple farmer.