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[–] 24562574? 0 points 7 points (+7|-0) ago 

Observe that today’s resurgence of tribalism is not a product of the lower classes—of the poor, the helpless, the ignorant—but of the intellectuals, the college-educated “elitists” (which is a purely tribalistic term). Observe the proliferation of grotesque herds or gangs—hippies, yippies, beatniks, peaceniks, Women’s Libs, Gay Libs, Jesus Freaks, Earth Children—which are not tribes, but shifting aggregates of people desperately seeking tribal “protection.”

The common denominator of all such gangs is the belief in motion (mass demonstrations), not action—in chanting, not arguing—in demanding, not achieving—in feeling, not thinking—in denouncing “outsiders,” not in pursuing values—in focusing only on the “now,” the “today” without a “tomorrow”—in seeking to return to “nature,” to “the earth,” to the mud, to physical labor, i.e., to all the things which a perceptual mentality is able to handle. You don’t see advocates of reason and science clogging a street in the belief that using their bodies to stop traffic, will solve any problem.

-Ayn Rand

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[–] lemon11 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

As an athiest Russian jew out of the USSR, she had a way of critiquing collectives that tended to ring true with groups which resembled those she fled. Unfortunately, that's where her cleverness ended. Even she didn't appreciate the objectivist following she attracted, preferring to keep her Objectivist cronies close.

Lucky for us these patterns recur, I guess.