While perusing the internet during a particularly dull presentation by a student during one of my lectures at the Paris Descartes University I discovered a very interesting website, created by a British TV station, known as Channel 4, that allows the people of the UK to discover which tribe they belong to. The premise of this website is quite obviously influenced by my own work, most notably my highly successful 1995 book on the decline of individualism, “The Time of the Tribes”, as evidenced by its reference to the existence of many different tribes within society. The multitude of different tribes available on the website show how fragmented modern society has become, thanks to the variety of different spheres of influence available to the average person. However, all of these tribes share common themes. For example, each and every tribe is based on some form of consumerism, with several being hyped as “alternative” to the “mainstream” tribes. In reality, these tribes are equally as “mainstream” as those they are trying to differentiate themselves from. And the majority of that which is consumed by each of these tribes is often linked by some form of brand name. For example, the tribe known as “Rahs” tend to wear brands that many other tribes can’t afford, such as Jack Wills. This financial advantage over another tribe, “Townies”, is almost the only thing that separates them from each other, evidence at how easy it can be for new tribes to create themselves.
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