Like-Minded Neighbors

Photo by dumarismck

Organizations have been created and studies have been conducted to foster improved relations among different generations, as they are thought to be less united than years past. Retirement communities where residents must be 55 years of age or older ensure that like-minded older adults or at least people with similar interests, socioeconomic backgrounds, and education live behind the same gated fence together. These regulated and age segregated communities, which may foster an increased sense of security (physically and physiologically) are commonplace and popular in states such as Arizona and Florida.

A recent article titled, “The Big Sort” in the Economist explores how some people in Texas recently decided to start a new community restricted to 100% Ron Paul supporters. The decision to live in neighborhoods where people share similar points of view is becoming less unusual, as more conservatives are choosing to live near other conservatives, and liberals near liberals.

According to Mr. Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart:

We now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our own thoughts about what’s right and wrong bounced back to us by the television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit online, the sermons we hear and the neighbourhoods we live in.

I understand that some people prefer like-minded neighbors; those who reflect their own ways of thinking. I see how the clustering of homogenous groups, those who are less likely to be exposed to contrary points of view, become more extreme and more harsh towards those with views different from their own. Liberals who go out of their way to isolate themselves from conservatives and vice versa are more likely to assume that their counterparts have views more radical than what they may actually be.

However, will the lack of communication between conservatives and liberals and/or young and older adults tear America apart? Not necessarily.

While some conservatives and liberals seek to isolate themselves, others move in the opposite direction, wanting to learn from others, and possibly changing their party affiliation altogether. In a similar fashion, some older adults seek age-isolated retirement communities, but others seek to rejuvenate themselves by surrounding themselves with younger generations.

Forcing people to talk to each other is no different than forcing people to isolate themselves from each other. Nevertheless, when social conditions (e.g. economic recession) require that liberals and conservatives along with young and old work together to realize common goals, communication will transpire. Or maybe not.