At the counter I ask for a small coffee with a splash of milk. The very young person facing me smirks and asks, “you mean tall?” I was blessed with a face that conveys irritation very clearly, and it is getting exponentially sharper with age. The young person quickly gets my coffee and hands it to me politely saying, “here you are, sir.” Which softens my face to their relief.

It is not that I care. I fully understand the concept of building a Brand Dedicated Tribe. The Grateful Dead accidentally did it. Harley Davidson too. Jeep has their silly rubber duck for the Jeep Wrangler Tribe. And we all have spent the last two years watching Pfizer doing it.

Clawing into my brain is a piece to the story “The Three Body Problem” by Cixin Liu. The militaries of the world combined, separated from their nations of origin, and created their own government. What would it take to do that?

Ataturk knew that language was very important in creating a tribe with a strong identity. (Teenage boys have this instinct.) Perhaps this is what is driving the pronoun and transgender debacle. If these crazy thoughts going through my head have any value, the Pentagon will come out with their own solution; their own pronouns and rules for using them. Then I would be certain these problems were manufactured in the first place.

But, it is not language alone. Membership in this new global tribe would include Tribal Branding in several different areas. Addiction to smart phones, obedience to the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and full trust in the corporate media would be the major factors. Then, anyone not a member of this tribe would be dismissed as mentally ill.

As I think of it… this really is what our political environment has been broken down to: tribal behavior based on brand loyalty.

A few sips of coffee later I get my brain back under control and get on with my day.