You may remember a conversation we had years ago about Babylon 5 in which I took issue with Delenn’s statement that humans are naturally inclined toward forming communities; my assertion was that our natural inclination is to form tribes and that it takes hard, conscious effort to evolve beyond that and to build communities. I see hopeful signs of that evolution in much of what the Obama campaign has been saying — a stark contrast to McCain’s and especially Palin’s stoking of tribal hatreds (not just racial/ethnic, but regional — Palin’s rhetoric about “Joe Six-Pack” and parts of the country being more pro-American than others are particularly depressing in this regard). That the GOP chooses to make “community organizer” into a term of derision is also very telling, and very depressing.