The human need to dominate

More specifically, why do tribes seek to dominate other tribes? What is it that drives the Persians, or northern Chinese, or selective Arab tribes these days. Is it the same as what drove the colonialists, or the Ottomans and others earlier. Tribes equate to kingdoms, and world history is constant in the ebb and flow of expanding and retracting kingdoms and tribes. The Arab-Israeli conflict seems constant to many young people because that is all they have known, but the present conflict is no older than around 1900. Go back much earlier in the same area, and the conflict might involve the Romans, or Ottomans, or a myriad of other ancient kingdoms covered by National Geographic.

Presently the northern Chinese seem on an historical bent to dominate the area we call China, and for the most basic economic and chauvinistic reasons. Some Arab tribes seem willing to support the most fervent religious zealots, while others defensively preserve the status quo of the last 100 years (as Egypt or Jordan, but it is more complicated). Religion and security seem to be common threads. And the Persian dictators seem bent on restoring a regional hegemony they learned in religious schools. Here fanaticism and oil money to finance the egos seem to be the big influencers. The astute reader will probably not see a common thread across all these examples, other than the human need to dominate. And it seems those dominators go after perceived weaknesses first because it is expeditious. They are astute enough to fill perceived vacuums first. But in the end, the need to dominate is constant. And they will fight in the end. Key thinking is how they fight. Like a boxer, they will weave and jab and use all tools available to a tribe. These tools are politics, deviousness, financial, security, propaganda, and at last resort, military action of various kinds. Against a classical western military, they will always lose. Hence much of the tactics and methods we read about today.

One more common thread for dominators is the time factor. In the end, locals win. It is not that they can outlast the dominator, but more simply out breed the dominator in numbers and culture. Many missionaries know this. Both Moslem and Christian missionaries can “convert”, but come back in 100 years and the local animist or pagan religions are intertwined with the new faith. Another example is a hero of WWI, General John J. Pershing. Earlier around 1900 he fought the Moro Islamic rebels in the southern Philippines, declared victory and left. And we still are fighting them today.

This academic type article has practical applications. America is not the dominator. Others are trying to dominate us for all the historical reasons mentioned. Do many of these people perceive weaknesses they can exploit as expeditious? Most of us think they are using gross misjudgments, but even if we are right, it is what they think that matters. In this there is great cause for worry. Worry for ourselves, and our children, and our grandchildren. They look up to adults to do the right thing.