We all have them. They may be to charismatic teachers, political parties, particular social values or customs, family or friends, a country, a religion, a musician, a sports team …
Allegiances entail identity and offer belonging to a group, which is essential for a tribal species like ours. At their most innocuous, allegiances can reflect values, build community, support growth and positive change.
The downside of a tool with the ability to do much of our thinking for us is that it can do much of our thinking for us. The danger of allegiances, like tribes and ideologies, is that higher-level, critical thinking goes offline, and real experience is subordinated to concepts.
Allegiances are natural and probably important for psychological well-being. But when we confuse allegiances with relationship, tribes with community, or ideologies with thinking, we like the famed lemmings, move in a dangerous direction.
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