A school of fish. They swim together like a flock of birds.
It’s not just religions, or ethnicities, or tribes, it’s ideologies. It’s social cliques, sexualities, corporations. People like to be in a group, they like to blend in, and represent that group, and defend it, and identify with and as it.
This seems to be political, but it’s not. It’s just a mentality. As the old saying goes, either you are in, or you are out.
Perhaps that’s what philosophy appeals to, or who it appeals to. The un-tribed, the outcast. The random free thinker.
But even as we do this, we are grouping ourselves informally—we like philosophy.
Each of your friends will have six friends, and each of them will have six friends, etc.
Or maybe you’re in a cult, which is interesting.
That web, or branching out, forms a psychic linking, which creates a much larger group than you’re aware that you’re involved with.
Just being involved in a clique doesn’t mean that clique isn’t part of a broader ideological set, which is likely involved in a much larger group mind, in which you involuntarily participate.