Tribalism, Identity, Da Bears

Well, Da Bears, the Bears, the Monsters of the Midway have lost the Super Bowl! It's so sad.

I just finished reading a book called How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer and it made me think about identity in our post-modern, anonymous, urban/suburban world. I'm not a rabid sports fan, or Bears fan and yet I'm sad and disappointed. Do I identify myself as a Chicagoan and a Bears fan more than I realize? Is it part of what makes me me? Does it give me a group to belong to?

This afternoon, after all, I drank beer and ate BBQ pork with some of my oldest friends and some people I'd never met before and yet we shared in community with a common cause, common beliefs and common ritual.

I believe I am a rational, autonomous individual without need of tribal identity. Maybe I'm wrong.