By Mike Clark | Earthpages | April 10, 2026
Two stories surfaced this week that appear unrelated. Set side by side, however, they raise a chilling question about how communities hold together—and what happens when the invisible bonds that sustain them finally snap.
In one case, researchers have documented a rare and slow-moving rupture within a chimpanzee community in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. A group of roughly 200 individuals, observed over several decades, began to fragment. Individuals that had previously shared food, territory, and grooming relationships suddenly became adversaries. Violence followed—not as a sudden eruption, but as the inevitable end point of a process where social cohesion had weakened past a critical threshold.
In a very different context, reports describe a tense exchange between senior Pentagon officials and the Vatican’s ambassador. According to accounts, the meeting became unusually pointed when an American official referenced the Avignon Papacy—a historical episode where political pressure forced the papacy out of Rome. Plans for Pope Leo XIV—the first American-born pope—to visit the U.S. this summer have since been set aside. He is expected instead to spend July 4th on the island of Lampedusa, visiting migrants.
The Jungian Lens
At one level, these developments belong to different domains: primate behavior and international politics. Yet both can be read through a lens associated with Carl Jung. Jung proposed that societies are shaped not only by what they consciously affirm, but also by what they exclude—the Shadow.
The chimpanzee case is instructive in its simplicity. Their conflict appears to emerge from changes in social structure rather than articulated grievances. What stands out is that the violence arises within an established community, not between strangers. Once the network of relationships weakens, the distinction between ally and adversary shifts instantly.
Projections and Power
Human conflicts operate with more complexity, yet the psychological themes remain. We see this in the recurring tensions involving Iran and North Korea. Jung suggested that what is most strongly rejected often exerts a secret pull. Consider the North Korean regime’s documented fascination with Western pop culture while simultaneously defining itself through its opposition to it. Opposition does not eliminate connection; it intensifies it.
The Pentagon episode illustrates how power, when expressed through historical analogy and institutional language, carries undertones that are rarely acknowledged. One might think of it as the Shadow in a tailored suit—structured, articulate, and embedded within accepted forms, yet primal in its intent.
The Response
What stands out in the present case is the response. Pope Leo XIV has chosen to mark his country’s national day not at the center of power, but on a Mediterranean island among the displaced. It is a powerful symbolic pivot, yet as Jung would remind us, no institution stands entirely outside the dynamics it critiques. The Church carries its own history and its own areas of blindness.
The lesson from Kibale and the Vatican is the same: the more certain we are that the problem lies entirely with the other side, the more likely it is that something closer to home is being overlooked.
Sources:
- Two Hundred Chimpanzees Are Embroiled in a 'Civil War' — Scientific American
- What a chimpanzee 'civil war' can teach us about how societies fall apart — NPR
- Why the Vatican and the White House Are on the Outs — The Free Press
- Avignon Papacy Explained: What Reported US Threat to Pope and Vatican Means — Newsweek
- Pentagon disputes report senior officials lectured Vatican diplomat about Pope Leo — America Magazine
Mike Clark is the editor of Earthpages.org, an interdisciplinary site covering religion, psychology, AI, and culture. He holds a PhD in religious studies from the University of Ottawa.
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