Latino's are America's most dangerous tribe

Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order in the 1990s popularized the idea that conflicts between “tribes” would replace the U.S.-Soviet conflict. As Serbs killed Croatians and Quebec Francophones voted for independence, events seemed to prove Huntington’s ideas -- loyalty to tribes began replacing loyalty to nations.

Tribalism is what makes the rapid rise of the Latino population in the U.S. so dangerous. Unlike the immigrants of the 1920s and 1930s, today’s immigrant retains his loyalty to his ethnic and linguistic brothers. The examples of this trend elsewhere give us a preview of America’s problems.

The Czechoslovakia we grew up with is now two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Yugoslavia is now Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. The old Soviet Union is now 15 different states.

Let’s look at today’s newspapers. “Kyrgyzstan kills are attempted genocide, say ethnic Uzbecks,” headlines the U.S. Guardian on June 16, 2010. (Kyrgyz tank in photo)  “How did Flemish separatists triumph in Belgian election?” wonders a headline from Reuters on the same day.

Couldn’t happen here? That’s just the point: it most likely to happen here. Arthur Schlesinger wrote in his 1991 Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society: “Nationalism remains after two centuries the most vital political emotion in the world — far more vital than social ideologies such a communism or fascism or even democracy. … Within nation-states, nationalism takes the form of ethnicity or tribalism.” Schlesinger warns, “The ethnic upsurge in America, far from being unique, partakes of the global fever.”

With more tribes, American has more fault lines. And the Latino population is the San Andreas of America’s tribal fault lines.