David Brooks writes about how we're all losing our collective minds in the US. We no longer share the same reality. We live in one party towns and partake of one party media. We lose the capacity to recognize each other's humanity and dehumanize each other as the enemy.
It's a great written example of how the US actually avoids this fate. "Fascism is always descending in America" starts the old joke "but somehow it always lands in Europe". The US is distinctly aware of how much a need there is for common ground, respect for each other, and vigorous, but civilized political debate. When things start tilting too far into extremism, there is a visceral reaction by honest people in all major (and many minor) political poles to tone it down and remember that we're all human beings and derive dignity from that fact. That dignity deserves respect and civility.
I don't think that we'll end up in that hyper segmented, different realities world that David Brooks is talking about, but without such articles, one day we might.
Posted by TMLutas at January 6, 2004 04:26 PM