CommentsTHE MYTH OF SCARCITY-Looking at the most recent examples of our longstanding and endemic confrontations over race, ethnicity, and equal rights, we should examine the ancient and primitive roots of this continuing problem – one that causes the human species to continue underachieving its potential – yet remains intact and unaddressed.
This social malaise is a result, in one form or another, of tribalism, a trait that resides in all species. It is based on the notion that “We” are better than “You,” no matter what objective assessments might show to the contrary. This tribal mentality is rooted in the gut feeling that it is not possible for We and You to do well at the same time, even if that original pattern of behavior eons ago was based on scarcity that is no longer our shared reality in modern times.
Unlike other species, man, whose societies that have become more complex over the ages, has continued to rely on and exploit this tribal phenomenon way past the primitive notions of early homo sapiens. And there are still those fomenting ideas of race and ethnicity as a basis for division.
Now, all prejudice, hatred, and manufactured adversarial interests continue unchallenged, permeating many other aspects of human society that one would not immediately recognize. And yet if we look at the more mundane expressions of what might be viewed as the modern version of tribal interests, we see that they continue to take precedence over objective truth. Might we not finally see just how counterproductive human behavior in these areas has become – and how we continue to fail to address it? That by facing it we might be able to put behind us the more virulent forms of racism that are fed by artificial fears of scarcity?
Let me offer two unlikely examples of this modern form of tribalism, even if it might not immediately be apparent, productive or necessary:
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and many other districts like it around the state have taken a position to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. Whatever position you personally support on the topic of undocumented immigration, does anyone really believe that LAUSD administrators and their bureaucracy are doing this because they care for this predominantly Latino population of students? After all, these are the students they continue to socially promote through school without basic skills, socialization or education, resulting in almost certain failure.
I would offer a much more likely common sense reason why the “We” among LAUSD administrators and bureaucracy has taken this position. It's about LAUSD jobs and vendors' profits. What percentage of LAUSD students are undocumented? If, after removing undocumented students from the system, LAUSD's budget were cut by this percentage, how many LAUSD administrative jobs and how many obscenely lucrative vendor contracts would also have to be cut? With a reduced student population, documented or undocumented, there would be a reduction in average daily attendance (ADI) funding and other monies from the state and federal government.
One can find this same bureaucratic self-dealing and obfuscating in the private sector as well, no matter how much a business continues to claim it puts customers first.
Over the last few days, I experienced the phenomenon of modern (corporate) tribal self-interest that is placed above the truth. Every month I receive a retirement check from Social Security that is electronically transferred into my account at First Financial Credit Union. Over this last weekend, the money showed as "pending" and not yet available to me in my account. On Monday, the money was credited to my account. However, on Tuesday it literally disappeared. It did not show as pending. It did not show as credited. It just didn't show. On Wednesday, the money miraculously reappeared. In all my years of banking, I have never had money disappear, so I called the credit union and asked them what happened.
Not only was I not given an answer, two of the three people I talked to refused to acknowledge what had just transpired and seemed to view my simple questioning as a personal attack on the FFCU (First Financial Credit Union), i.e., their tribe of employees.
It was not until I had the tenacity to hang in there on what seemed interminable hold and talk to yet another supervisor that I finally found someone who understood the possible ramifications to FFCU of money just disappearing, what this might mean to them in another context: if such weakness could be used in a more financially consequential scam against FFCU. The supervisor said she would go to their tech people and get back to me. Any odds on whether I hear from any member of the FFCU tribe in the future?
In whatever social or commercial form modern tribalism manifests itself, what is key to maintaining this counterproductive system and feeding tribal prejudice is an artificially fabricated scarcity. If this continues unquestioned, squandering the fruits of an industrial revolution that should been able to eliminate differences between tribes, we will be unable to address issues like global warming -- threats that affect both the We and the You.
(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles, observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He was a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at [email protected]) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
