Exploring Tribalism: Insights from 'The Affinities'

The Oath of Allegiance: The Affinities and “The Organization Man” Theory. With the expeditious growth of the Internet, it became moderately easy for everyone to find and connect with the people who the same attentiveness, ambitions, or even ideas with them. Through that, many social networking, tribal politics, dating services are created in order to meet up those requirements. Robert Charles Wilson has illustrated this procedure of communication through his book, The Affinities. The book has a setting in the future, where technologies and science are evolved to a point that it can analyze, determine and match one person to their “appropriate” group. The main character, Adam Fisk, who paces the plot as the narrator, takes this as a life-changing-opportunity

It is known as one of the “big five” within the twenty-two exclusive groups of the Affinities, where people develop an absolute trust in one and another. So within days of joining Tau, he is offered not only a home to live, connection with others, a job, friends, but even a girl that shares the same sympathy as his, or as he put it, “Tau telepathy.” They assume that this particular telepathy plays as the major role in thrusting Tau mates’ abilities of interaction and cooperation with each other to the most effective outcome. For instant, when Mouse’s aggressive ex-husband, Bobby Botero, shows up, threatening and manipulating her life again, Taus team up to fight against him as a unique, and as a “we.” William Whyte has once stated in his theory, “The Organization Man,” about the fact that many of the American workers had identified themselves as parts of the companies: “They are all, as they so often put it, in the same boat. Listen to them talk to each other over the front lawns of their suburbia and you cannot help but be struck by how well they grasp the common denominators which bind them” (Whyte 547). These workers share the same compassions and empathy as Taus share theirs. They instantly, yet deeply understand one and another so well that eventually, they place their entire faith to each other, as well as to their own organization. Thus, this causes them not to be

However, they only share this stimulation between their tranche mates and consider other “non-Tau people” as tethers. Whyte has also specified this concept in his book, where he shares his thoughts on how the values of belongingness controls one’s attitude and defines him in some ways. For example, at a point in the novel, after driving back to his hometown to attend his grandmother’s funeral, Amanda, now as Adam’s girlfriend, is insulted by his racist father. This leads Amanda to convince Adam to choose his duty as a Tau member over his relationship with his biological family: “But you’re[sic] not a Fisk! That’s[sic] the point. You don’t[sic] belong to those people. Their sins aren’t[sic] on you. That house is not your home, and Fisk is just your name…You’re[sic] one of us” (Wilson 82). Not only does she judgmentally imply that he is in the possession of their tranche, but she also expresses the burning hatred she has toward other tethers. She demonstrates her idea of giving Tau an absolute and devoted loyalty. While at the same time, she suggests Adam not to worry about the problems outside of Tau. Even though, seemingly the books focus on a