In 2017 — we need faith in the future — I wrote that we are stuck between the Market and the Network era — citing the TIMN model — with significant yearnings in certain sectors to go back to our insular Tribal ways. While the Tribal form may be comforting, its structure threatens the foundations of democracy. And I felt that we were stuck in a period similar to the early era of the printing press. Printed books enabled the Protestant reformation which flamed conflicts like the European wars of religion, and only many years later developed into the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment. A reversion to Tribalism in our times may result in a period similar to the tumultuous 16th and early 17th centuries in Europe.
With the continuing release of the Epstein files, it looks like the reversal to tribalism is in full swing.
What the Epstein files expose, though, is how the “anti-elites” are themselves very much part of the elite. Epstein’s network included key figures from the Maga movement: Trump, Thiel, Musk, Steve Bannon and many others. Despite being contemptuous of Trump, Epstein was open to the ideas of rightwing populism. In an exchange with Thiel, he welcomed Brexit as marking a “return to tribalism. counter to globalization. amazing new alliances”, and the possibilities, too, of opening up new ways for enrichment, because “finding things on their way to collapse, was much easier than finding the next bargain” — The Observer 2026-02-08
