- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,467
- Reaction score
- 4
I'm out of here for a while. This Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street bs is too much. Both sides need to get their heads straightened out.
i quote from Purple State of Mind:
"More and more, we live in two Americas.
One America perceives itself as Christian, traditionalist, patriotic. Once upon a time, we called that America “conservative”.
The other America sees itself as rational, flexible, international. We have called that America “liberal”.
Each of these two Americas views the other as extreme to the point of being dangerous. Each understands itself as morally right, the other as fundamentally wrong.
As a result, slowly but surely, year after year, election after election, we citizens of the two Americas are losing the ability to get past our divisions. We decline the opportunity to be civil. We refuse to listen.
On cable television and radio, highly paid entertainers on both sides prefer bombast and insult to reasoned argument and tempered commentary. Bloggers promote rage and rumor over factual reporting and dialogue. Citizens shout down their elected officials at town hall meetings.
This isn’t just a function of bad manners.
In his indispensable book of politics and demographics The Big Sort: How The Clustering Of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, journalist Bill Bishop makes the case that in the last three decades tens of millions of us have moved out of neighborhoods, towns and cities where people think differently than we do and moved into places where people are more like us—where they look, talk and vote for more like us, to be exact.
As a result, our communities are turning into echo chambers, where everyone preaches to the choir, and more and more Americans increasingly think of their fellow citizens and taxpayers on the opposite side as the Enemy.
At Purple State, we agree with Bishop. We have observed this division firsthand in our families and communities, and we believe it is pointless and self-destructive. We believe it is getting out of hand.
Out of anxiety for the future, in a fragile spirit of hope, the Purple State of Mind project was born."
Bye for now.
i quote from Purple State of Mind:
"More and more, we live in two Americas.
One America perceives itself as Christian, traditionalist, patriotic. Once upon a time, we called that America “conservative”.
The other America sees itself as rational, flexible, international. We have called that America “liberal”.
Each of these two Americas views the other as extreme to the point of being dangerous. Each understands itself as morally right, the other as fundamentally wrong.
As a result, slowly but surely, year after year, election after election, we citizens of the two Americas are losing the ability to get past our divisions. We decline the opportunity to be civil. We refuse to listen.
On cable television and radio, highly paid entertainers on both sides prefer bombast and insult to reasoned argument and tempered commentary. Bloggers promote rage and rumor over factual reporting and dialogue. Citizens shout down their elected officials at town hall meetings.
This isn’t just a function of bad manners.
In his indispensable book of politics and demographics The Big Sort: How The Clustering Of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, journalist Bill Bishop makes the case that in the last three decades tens of millions of us have moved out of neighborhoods, towns and cities where people think differently than we do and moved into places where people are more like us—where they look, talk and vote for more like us, to be exact.
As a result, our communities are turning into echo chambers, where everyone preaches to the choir, and more and more Americans increasingly think of their fellow citizens and taxpayers on the opposite side as the Enemy.
At Purple State, we agree with Bishop. We have observed this division firsthand in our families and communities, and we believe it is pointless and self-destructive. We believe it is getting out of hand.
Out of anxiety for the future, in a fragile spirit of hope, the Purple State of Mind project was born."
Bye for now.