Ignore the importance of Tribe at your peril

Subject: Ignore the importance of Tribe at your peril. 

I'm reading a fascinating account about Parisian and India where the society segregated itself into Pakistan and India on the basis that there were sufficient differences between Hindu and Muslim that they must separate. For centuries the Muslim the Hindu and the Sikh had lived as one in the larger  Indian community. The divisions were clearly there based on religion and the laws governing each religion but the communities across the sub continent got on with each other reasonably well. The British in their sense of colonial structure, an effort to to promote some semblance order, where, if you compartmentalise the issues you simplify the problem. Directing people in railway stations to Muslim refreshment rooms and to places were you could find water taps signed Hindu water or Muslim water, or the calendar becoming a symbol of religious disparity the holidays emphasising the fact that the continent was not homogeneous but in some ways fragmented. The ability of Indian and Muslim to live side by side as fellow human beings was put under more stress, an opportunity seized by the political class to find ways to exploit this for their own advantage.

Any society has to take note of sectors within the society who, by their actions proclaim their difference. The Catholic Church and the people who attended, although similar were different to the Church of England and more so the Methodist. Seen from within the religious community they were more radically different, each perusing a different approach to garnering their flock. "Oh your a Catholic" followed by a pause indicated approval or disapproval, much like the news that you support Tottenham rather than Arsenal. The sense that your club is different means a lot to some people, it goes to the basis of how people judge each other, it's that tribal thing with all it's warped sense of allegiance.
In this fast moving world of winners and losers the ground on which you stand can become a quagmire overnight leading to a great deal of insecurity. As the modern trend is to discount much of the traditional conformity which gave us our sense of belonging we are left with the hope that we can be a friend to everyone, irrespective of the fact that the fundamentals are so so different. We can of course ignore those differences, it's the modern trend to do so but as in the days of Partition, the instinct to find for your club and, blinded to the oppositions skillful play, cry foul when the goal is scored.