Wedrifid, I was disappointed that Eliezer so succinctly identified the problem then mostly left it hanging.
“Politics” is not the problem Eliezer identified and nor is “the thing that is the alternative to raiding and pillaging”. (Never mind that the ‘politics’ that corrupts thinking applies just as much—or more—to the tribes who go around raiding and pillaging. It’s about the internal politics within the tribe and the external conflicts come in to it as just more things the individuals can argue about in order to achieve personal gain, preferably at the expense of rivals.)
“Politics” is not the problem Eliezer identified and nor is “the thing that is the alternative to raiding and pillaging”. (Never mind that the ‘politics’ that corrupts thinking applies just as much—or more—to the tribes who go around raiding and pillaging. It’s about the internal politics within the tribe and the external conflicts come in to it as just more things the individuals can argue about in order to achieve personal gain, preferably at the expense of rivals.)