Terrorists Tarring Those in Their Midst: Tribal Tribulations

Yesterday I watched controversial but brilliant Entomologist/
Sociobiologist Dr. E.O. Wilson, Harvard Emeritus, courtesy
of PBS.  The lengthy program, with fascinating footage and
narration by the sage posited the many advantages of
working within a group, one's tribe, clan, etc. Wilson writes
poetically about his thesis that not only does Darwin's
natural selection work on individual evolution, but on the
group as well. For his model he takes the ant, a highly
social animal, doing the old "contrast and compare" so
familiar to students of my generation (60 years ago) with
another also highly social species--us. This school of thought
has a term, eusocial, and only homo sapiens, ants, termites
and bees are accorded that honor. (I suspect the good
doctor has overlooked and omitted a few others,
like dolphins.)

The advantages of group cooperation are too obvious
and numerous to detail here, but Dr. Wilson reminds
us that everything now alive on the planet has "grown
up" together through time...which includes firm formation
of the tribe or group dynamic. It is striking and for me,
irrefutable, how homo sapiens resembles ants: the
way we both go to war, having scouts forge ahead to
inform the waiting group, divisions of labor, leaders
and self-sacrificing troops. Cooperation in all aspects
of life are common as well.

Lest we float into a self-satisfied, dream-like trance
re: all the positivity associated with tribal existence,
Wilson does give the nod to the eusocials' dark side,
where/when the balance tips too far over into the
wildly/widely destructive carnage emblematic of
WWI and WWII (--Not to mention whole colonies
of thousands of ants and termites).

Thinking about our latest strange, murderously
chaotic terror era, I realized that the tribe now
heavily harms its individual members with guilt
by  association. The furor over taking in refugees
from Syria is the current dramatic denouement.
All Arabs are looked at askance, here at home
and abroad; mention Syria as your background
at your peril. Texas, not known as a particularly
intellectually emancipated state, was shamed
last week by a Houston mosque set ablaze,
a library section, with the loss of priceless
antiquities. (Hello, cretins: all mosques are
not terror-training  madrasas! I don't know
how such stupid people can continue to exist.)

So, sadly, dear Doctor Wilson, here is food for further
study and programming: these terrorists are tarring
members in their midst, the innocents in the tribe,
who, like most rational humans around the world,
simply want to do little harm and just live. I've long
said spreading chaos is real: tribal tribulations
are merely one dangerous part of human society's
descent/disintegration before we have achieved
true civilization.