[nagrom]

Books, religion, university research, fashion trends and charities. Wars, lynch mobs, cartoons, traditions, village fetes, school plays, professional plays, business strategies and restaurant reviews. Newspapers, television stations, YCombinator, football teams and new political parties. Anything to which a multitude of younger, stupider people can claim allegiance for which to be nice or mean to their peers.

[Alex3917]

This. Chris Hedges has a whole book about this called War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning.

It's shouldn't be that difficult to understand, considering we spend all day every day interacting with these institutions, so it's disappointing to see so many otherwise intelligent people here who don't seem to grok what he's talking about.