PDF Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging Audible Audio Edition Sebastian Junger Hachette Audio Books
Download As PDF : Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging Audible Audio Edition Sebastian Junger Hachette Audio Books
We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding - "tribes". This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival.
Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians - but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today.
Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that - for many veterans as well as civilians - war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Tribe explains why we are stronger when we come together and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.
PDF Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging Audible Audio Edition Sebastian Junger Hachette Audio Books
"I'll be frank. I've not been a big fan of Junger's previous books, but in this book he puts his finger on one of the most important cultural realities of the twenty-first century, the loss of tight-knit communities. Certainly, Robert Putnam (in his important book BOWLING ALONE) and others have documented similar realities, but Junger's work stands out for two reasons: 1) it is immensely accessible and 2) he arrives at this conclusion from a unique perspective, that of his observation of the military experience. One of his central themes is the idea that soldiers in combat situations have such an intense experience of interdependency, solidarity and community that they often struggle upon returning to civilian life in the US, in which there rarely is any similar sort of community to which they can belong.
TRIBE is well-worth reading for pointed socio-political questions it asks about American civic life and for the keen observations it makes about the combat experience. Thankfully, Junger doesn't offer any easy fixes, but on the other hand, he doesn't do much to stir our imaginations about how to cultivate in American civilian life the sort of solidarity that combat engenders. At times, he does tend toward idealizing the Native American experience of tribal life, and that sort of idealism won't be particularly helpful for addressing the dissolution of community that we so intensely experience. Regardless, this is a timely book that should not only widely read, but also widely discussed."
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Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging Audible Audio Edition Sebastian Junger Hachette Audio Books Reviews :
Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging Audible Audio Edition Sebastian Junger Hachette Audio Books Reviews
- Upon reading Junger’s article in a recent Vanity Fair article on the affects of PTSD (it’s not exclusive to just war veterans, by the way), I was under the assumption that a large portion of this book would be dedicated to that. I was wrong. Sebastian dove much deeper than that.
Tribe focuses on the growing disconnect we’re experiencing with one another as a society, and the far reaching consequences of that disconnect. It’s an eye-opening letter to the American public that politely reminds us that we’ve lost our way when it comes to being a closer knit community as a whole.
Not always, of course. In his book, he touches on how tragedies such as 9/11 brings us closer - albeit briefly. But once the dust settles, we fall back to our old ways.
This is not a book about war, the military, or PTSD. It’s about the loss of belonging, caring for our fellow man as we do about the ones closest to us. He uses a parable about a brief encounter he has with a homeless man as a young adult. The man sees that he’s on a backpacking trip on his own and asks if he has enough food for his trip. The young Junger, afraid of being mugged for his supplies, lies and tells the man that he has just a little food to last him. The homeless man tells Junger he’ll never make it on what he has and hands him his lunch bag that he more than likely received from a homeless shelter - probably the only meal the homeless man would have the entire day. Sebastian feels horrible about himself after that, but uses that lesson as a parable for Tribe.
Think of your fellow man before thinking of yourself. Because without that sense of humanism, togetherness, belonging, we’re all dead inside. - I have long wondered why when it was time for me to return to America from Vietnam I was apprehensive, perhaps even a bit frightened. Mr. Junger answered my question. I left my tribe.
Now, years later, a libertarian-conservative, I had even allowed myself to hold the political left in contempt. This book shames me and I suspect that in that regard the book will even affect change in me.
I'm supposed to be writing about this book, not myself, but for me the book was not just interesting and informative. It opened up something long suppressed and I am grateful.
If you are a vet you should read it. If you are so highly partisan that you regard those other guys as evil, please read it.
It's not just a good book. - I'll be frank. I've not been a big fan of Junger's previous books, but in this book he puts his finger on one of the most important cultural realities of the twenty-first century, the loss of tight-knit communities. Certainly, Robert Putnam (in his important book BOWLING ALONE) and others have documented similar realities, but Junger's work stands out for two reasons 1) it is immensely accessible and 2) he arrives at this conclusion from a unique perspective, that of his observation of the military experience. One of his central themes is the idea that soldiers in combat situations have such an intense experience of interdependency, solidarity and community that they often struggle upon returning to civilian life in the US, in which there rarely is any similar sort of community to which they can belong.
TRIBE is well-worth reading for pointed socio-political questions it asks about American civic life and for the keen observations it makes about the combat experience. Thankfully, Junger doesn't offer any easy fixes, but on the other hand, he doesn't do much to stir our imaginations about how to cultivate in American civilian life the sort of solidarity that combat engenders. At times, he does tend toward idealizing the Native American experience of tribal life, and that sort of idealism won't be particularly helpful for addressing the dissolution of community that we so intensely experience. Regardless, this is a timely book that should not only widely read, but also widely discussed. - Several years ago during the height of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I had a "discussion" with my brother. He said he was willing to pay his taxes to support the wars, this being the extent of his commitment.
He has three sons, all eligible to serve in the military, none of them having done so, and neither had he.
Many years hence, following North Korea's hack of Sony, my same brother implied we should go to war against Korea and not bother with Obama's
proportional approach. I reminded him we have 25-30,000 troops along the border there, and he seemed to not care.
Then I asked him if he was going to encourage any of his boys to enlist and take up arms. He emphatically told me there were plenty of people willing to go fight. That, of course, didn't answer my question, but he knew he slipped it and I simply stopped speaking to him.
What my brother was willing to do was finance the fighting. He had no intention of paying the true costs of what he advocated.
Mr. Junger's book explains why this type of attitude is so harmful to those who fight our wars and return home to a population so far removed from the wars and the troops that it affects their assimilation into the society they left, and causes us to treat them as victims instead of soldiers, and why it's never enough or even wise to simply say "thank you for your service".
Because we limit our war exposure to so small a percentage of our citizens, men and women return home to a country completely removed from any type of knowledge of the brotherhood of soldiers, the cohesive units that draw men and women close and unites them. And it isn't just the soldiers exposed to battle that feel the effects and suffer from high rates of PTSD for longer periods because they reenter a country suddenly foreign to them. Civilians go through the same ordeal. And it occurs in America at far higher rates than other countries involved in war.
I thought this was a great read. I highly recommend it. I'm glad it made the NYT bestseller's list. Maybe people will start paying attention.
Sebastian has the bona fides to cover a topic such as this. We'd be wise to listen to what he has to say.
