Tribe: On Homecoming And Belonging

Tribe by Sabastian Juger

The Tribe is an eye opener for the post war traumas endured by the veterans of the war. The book is unique in its own way since it features on realization of a much bigger psychological aspect of any human i.e. the need to affiliate and belong. The notion of the book is to build on the most primal desire of any human being. The author asserts that modern day veterans are very much like traditional people belonging to tribes. The people of that time used to lead a nomadic life where men used to hunt and females were involved in home making roles, however, all the people used to exist in a small group called tribe with certain culture and norms of their own. The author lays immense weightage on how the modern day relationships are devoid of such tribal instincts to group together and builds on how crucial they might be.

The author then asserts an unpopular opinion that while it is thought commonly that a veteran coming back from battle zone would be extremely happy but it is quite often not the case as most of the veterans might end up missing the experience. As a marine corp, I can thoroughly relate to each ideology put forth by the author. If I were an ex-marine corp I would definitely miss it because it was real and there's no gray area in the battle field. There's no maybe or might be and no questioning. There's fight and no fight but just life and death, brothers and enemy and glory and death.

As a marine, we all have a mission which is to fight and keep our brothers alive. You end up being extremely affiliated to the man next to you. All of those brave men I fought along side of, even the ones I don't particularly like, I love. I love every last one of them. They are one reason that one would actually miss their job. Furthermore, the fact that we didn't have insignificant facts like bills, jobs, and families dividing our time. It was just us and we literally saw the best and the worst times of our lives together. We would spend every minute fearing, fighting, walking, miserable, happy, all together, as one. We didn't have anything but our weapons and our brothers.

Just like the author asserts, another reason as to why any ex marine corp miss being a part of the team is that they had a reason in life. It wasn't gray, or questionable in the way of wondering what it should be. But, in fact, he knew what my life was, and what he was meant for. The way marines fight depend on numerous situations. Some will do it because they feel it is their duty as defenders of the country, other will feel that they must make their family proud and not back away from fights, people who generally need a job either obey the orders reluctantly or start loving what they do which in my case makes up the entire essence of my career as a marine corp.

Even though in most wars, we still lose brothers and become scarred for life they define the essence of our character hence are never fully able to adjust to a normal civilian life. The sense of belongingness remains absent and we yearn for a tribe of our own i.e. the marines.

References

Loxterkamp, D. (2017). Caring for the tribe: from addiction to zen. The Annals of Family Medicine, 15(6), 578-580.

Junger, S. (2016). Tribe On Homecoming and Belonging. New York: Twelve.