Many of us like to believe we are open-minded. Yet in fact we prefer to be in groups with others like us. We quickly form into tribes and cliques within those tribes. Although we, over time, drift fluidly from one to another, or may even be a member of multiple cliques and tribes at the same time, we genuinely relax with those who think like us.
Many things were expected to widen our horizons. Writing, printing, television, and most recently the internet. The ideas of all the world’s individuals are now available to us…
Unfortunately, great choice can be upsetting. People tend to clump. Certain people like certain entertainments or ideas. It is more comfortable to be with those who share our views. It was ever so. Only lunatics seek to be different from everyone around them, and all those that they know.
When there was less means of exchange, tribes and cliques had alternate ways to judge members “in person.” For centuries that has not been quite true. But recently, we may consider “our” group to be nothing but dead people and their books. Or robots on the internet whom we have never seen.
So our cliques shrivel to ourselves and a set of often disembodied but supportive voices. For anything. And the echoes in our tiny little boxes make us feel we each must be right
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 