Does the positive side of tribalism/racism outshine the negative side?

[tackattack]

Sort of bleeds into our other convo, as things often do.  Let's suppose that a god exists, that it;s the christian god,  and let's suppose that god hardens hearts.   Let's suppose that god isn't an irrational force that acts in a random fashion - that it has a plan, and we can agree that plans are ultimately referent to goals.  

The goal of human salvation has a plan, and the hardening of hearts must be of service to that plan - but if by hardening a heart god has annihilated any possibility of salvation by those metrics...what has that god accomplished?

Hardening of the heart doesn't annihilate the possibility of salvation. Hardening of the heart produces the opportunity to be broken. The breaking of stubbornness for example. It doesn't exclude love either. Here's a practical and current example. My son does stupid shit. I love him. and always will. I don't always like what he does. When he decides to go 100mph to get home on time his priorities are certainly not right. What he does tempers my reactions to him and shows how I feel about what he's done. It doesn't mean I stopped loving him, but that my heart is somewhat hardened by what he does. His heart may be hardened to his patriarchal oppression. For him to grow part what seems a permanent way of being into other areas he can't see because his heart is hardened, it might require some cracks and breaks in that hardened pride and ego. When you're broken you can be malleable and more open to possibilities.

I may want to give everyone in the world 20 bucks, but that won't happen. Some won't hear about it, some won't trust it, some won't want it, some will take advantage, etc.. It ceases to matter why or that I do want to give $20 to the world, the more others get involved, because each participant brings their perspective, action and judgement into the equation. I did state that God can harden a heart, but so can people. People's hearts are hardened every day. Things like normalizing atrocities, indifference and apathy, the bystander affect, etc.. Some people even do it purposefully like learning to let a baby self soothe requires that hardening. hardening isn't intrinsically bad, just another mechanism or tool that is a feature not a bug.

To get back to the OP and paint some lanes for the conversation, I consider tribalism exactly one of those heart hardening things. To some degree it is helpful. Dealing with years of oppression and mistrust requires a certain amount of tribalism to weather that storm. However being too hard that you mistake the kind officer reaching out his hand to help you up for a mean "other" looking to oppress you is too far. It's also driven by emotionalism and instinct rather than intellect and reason, making it hard to suss out the details during the experience.