Chauvinism is a phenomenon that arises out of Ethiopian social experience. This article examines TPLF chauvinism. The TPLF is selected for analysis because it is the ruling group. It is TPLF Ethiopian chauvinism because it comes out of Ethiopia and can be expressed in any other political organization in Ethiopia.

When Kinijit or any other political organization achieves power it will develop chauvinism unless it is checked and balanced by other political organizations created by the people of Ethiopia. These organizations must be continuously renewed by the people (fresh blood) every few years, otherwise the organizations will become chauvinistic and evolve away from the people.

DEFINITION OF CHAUVINISM

Chauvinism is extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of a group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group. -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvinism

INTRODUCTION

"Biologists suddenly realized that very few animals ever put the interests of the group or the species before the individual. Without exception, all those that do are actually putting family first, not group. The only group that animals ever favor over the individual, is the family."

- Matt Ridley, The Origins of Virtue (1996)

Chauvinism is a basic feature of human society. Chauvinism promotes group self-esteem. Chauvinism helps create a strong sense of identity. It helps bind groups together so that they work effectively towards a common goal. It is an instinctive element of human nature and cannot be totally erased.

Primitive human societies are characterized by tribal chauvinism. The 100,000 tribes that existed at the end of the last ice-age (14,000 years ago) were instinctively chauvinistic and engaged in constant conflict with their neighbors.

The development of agriculture 10,000 years ago, led to the rise of states and empires ruled by chauvinistic ruling elites who claimed divine legitimacy for their control and enslavement of vast numbers of people. Ethnicity developed as tribes settled down and conquered and assimilated each other.

TPLF chauvinism is not tribal or ethnic. Sure, there is the typical ethnic pride, and this, along with ideology, is its basic organizational method --- but every ethnic group in Ethiopia (and the world) has a fundamental pride and sense of being special.

TPLF developed its identity by intense study and application of Marxist-Leninist ideas. Belief in these ideas bonded the core leadership of the TPLF into a strong, united front that eliminated rival ethnic Tigrean organizations.

Two factors since 1991 have transformed the identity of the TPLF: First, over the years, the socialist ideology of equality has been gradually exchanged for a materialistic, wealth-accumulation culture. Secondly, large numbers of unqualified relatives have been recruited and marriages between important TPLF members have established a new kinship basis for the group.

Thus the TPLF chauvinism has evolved into the typical chauvinism of a ruling class. The chauvinism of a successful organization that has humiliated its rivals for nearly 20 years. The chauvinism of a group of people that own villas and landcruisers in a land where most people have barely enough food to eat. The chauvinism of people whose children are entertained live by Beyonce - a name that most Ethiopians wouldn’t recognize. The chauvinism of a group that despite its great success, is also under great threat and needs to bind tightly together in order to survive.

THESES

This article advances the following theses:

1. The core members of the TPLF form a group that is separate and distinct from common Tigrayan society. Although at one point they may have been representative of the society from which they emerged, they have now developed characteristics of kinship, wealth, status, lifestyle and culture, which mark them as special. This divergence grows wider with every passing year.

2. Prediction: A statistical survey of the core TPLF members versus the population of Tigray as a whole will show that:

----------a. The per-capita material wealth of the core TPLF members vastly (and without justification) exceeds the per-capita wealth of the people of Tigray, and

----------b. Kinship ties between TPLF members are much stronger than what would be predicted for a merit-based organization that claims to represent 5 million people.

3. The TPLF is an aristocracy not a meritocracy. The life-terms of its senior leadership, and the appointment of unqualified people to important positions in the Ethiopian government demonstrate this. The next generation of TPLF leaders will be drawn from the children and relatives of the current members. Kinship functions to bind small groups like the TPLF, but it cannot bind the TPLF to the larger population of Tigray. Thus with every passing year, as its internal kinship ties strengthen, the distance between the TPLF and the people of Tigray will increase.

4. The entrance of TPLF members to the elite villa-and-landruiser level of Ethiopian society will orient their identity towards expression of elite-level status symbols. These status symbols will be preferred over traditional Tigrean culture. This will make the TPLF rapidly evolve away from any cultural/ethnic affinity and towards a cosmopolitan identity that is ethnic-neutral.

5. Ethnocentrism (e.g. ethnic favoritism) is a known phenomena in human societies. However in Ethiopia, this phenomenon is overshadowed by two other factors

----------a. Huge Wealth Inequality: Children of core TPLF members will marry an Oromo, Amhara or any other ethnicity of their own high-class status before they would consider marrying a person who earns the average income of Tigray Regional State (several hundred birr per year). In fact, TPLF-ites would rather commit suicide than marry such a co-ethnic with average income. But actually it is worse. Because the TPLF-ites are living such a high status elite lifestyle (elite schools, Beyonce tickets, social events at the Sheraton) they will prefer a person of any ethnic group who shares their elite Sheraton-Beyonce-Bole-Boogie lifestyle over even a wealthy Tigrayan who does not.

----------b. The Historical Evolution of Ethiopian Ethnic Groups: The largest ethnicities have grown through intermarriage, assimilation, and adoption. Ethnic boundaries in Ethiopia are very porous. Thus ethnic-favoritism has a much weaker genetic basis than in ethnicities that developed under segregated conditions in other countries.

6. Taking into account the above points, evolutionary biology provides no genetic basis to support the assertions of the TPLF that it exists to represent the interests of the people of Tigray. No such group, which sacrifices itself for the sake of the ethnic "nation", can develop through natural selection. Altruistic (self-sacrificing) groups do so only to preserve/enhance their inclusive fitness. Inclusive fitness cannot be improved when the group includes millions of people. Hamiltons rule: (rB > C, where r=relatedness, B=benefit, and C=cost) can be applied to show this mathematically: http://brembs.net/hamilton/ .

7. A temporary convergence of interests between a group like the TPLF and the people of Tigray can exist only if outside forces suppress expression of Tigrean ethnic identity, and external conflict develops. In this case self-sacrifice benefits both the group and the larger ethnicity. Otherwise their interests diverge.

8. TPLF policies are first and foremost, pro-TPLF. They may also be pro-poor, or pro-growth, or pro-democracy, but unless they are pro-TPLF, they do not become government policy. Government policies that might be highly favorable to Tigray’s (and Ethiopia’s) development are rejected if they weaken the power of the TPLF.

9. TPLF exceptionalism refers to the chauvinistic claim that the TPLF is the greatest Ethiopian organization ever created, and is uniquely qualified to run the country. All other political groups are regarded as being driven by base motives (greed, power lust, hate). This claim of TPLF exceptionalism is analogous to the divine legitimacy previously claimed by Ethiopia's kings.

10. Chauvinism becomes more pronounced when a group is (a) highly successful and (b) threatened. The TPLF is both, and thus highly chauvinistic.

CONCLUSIONS

1. TPLF Chauvinism is not ethnic chauvinism, and the TPLF is evolving along the typical path of all other ruling elites in Ethiopia's history. The difference is that the TPLF is using the suffocating Leninist, top-down, pervasive, control ideology of "Revolutionary Democracy," which has been hurting Ethiopia since 1974.

2. The TPLF’s ideology is more suited to biological species that exhibit high degrees of related-ness (over 50%). Examples are bees or ants, or social insects that reproduce by cloning. TPLF governance is unsuited for governing the 5-million humans of Tigray let alone the 80-million humans in Ethiopia.

3. The people of Tigray should realize that they are falling under the grip of a chauvinistic, aristocratic class that defines itself by internal kinship, material wealth, and expression of elite aspects of cosmopolitan culture derived from Addis Ababa, Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles.

4. The non-Tigrayan people of Ethiopia should realize that the TPLF is pro-TPLF and not pro-Tigray. This can be proved by evolutionary genetic theory and its application to group selection. Further support is provided by empirical results from the study of societies around the world. (Basically, only devoted religious people form self-sacrificing groups that put the interests of the larger society ahead of the interests of the group)

5. Ethnocentrism is inherent in all of us. But it is a simplistic and erroneous explanation for what the TPLF is doing. Our enemy is the stone-age group chauvinism that ALL political organizations exhibit to some degree or another. The only way to control this is to have many different groups compete against each other and keep each other humble.

Note - this is only version 1.0 since the article will require revision and much additional research