Web Wide Warfare. Part 1: The Blue Shadow

Many tribalistic conflicts today are driven by, or at least influenced by, the structure and function of the internet and online systems and cultures. This first paper (of two focused upon this issue) identifies several salient driving factors which underpin one such conflict - the ＂culture wars＂ in their online expression, predominantly in the United States context. For purposes of simplicity, the categories of Red and Blue tribes are used to frame the discussion, with the focus here upon unpacking salient aspects of the Blue tribalism in the United States. The paper also argues that the poststructuralist foundations of Critical Futures Studies make that field more readily aligned with Blue tribe thinking, and that this may limit its capacity to help mediate in issues related to the tribal split. Critical Futurist Sohail Inayatullah's Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is employed to identify factors which span the litany, social/systems, worldview and mythic levels of the problematique.