I think that most people feel that the USA is becoming more and more radical and I do too. Per Sir Issac Newton nothing changes without a cause. In this blog I will tell you what I think is the cause.
First off, we need to agree on what radicalism means. My definition is a measure of the percentage of people who have ideas or behavior that is farther and farther from the mean. The opposite of radical is a group with similar views. This is not a case of right or wrong.
Next, let's look at history. When us humans lived in small groups like cavemen or small villages and back in those days we only had contact with a few people and it did not change much over time. Because the groups were small, it was difficult to ignore odd people in your group. The affect of this was more contact with all member, even odd members. The effect was to change both you and the odd person and cause the both of you to tend toward the average. This is the starting point. In some small countries where change has been slow or cities small, they would be more homogeneous with few radicals. Finland might be one of those countries or Japan. Are you following this?
Now, what has changed? There are many, but some seem more significant to me. Bigger cities allow us to pick our friends from a larger pool. This causes the groups that are formed to be more specialized and different. Historically people were formed into "tribes". What we now have with the recent development of larger cities are new kinds of "tribes" forming.
Colleges and universities are another change with larger percentage now attending. These tend to form "tribes" with in their alumni. Recently with greater fluency, students are attending colleges and universities farther and farther away from their homes which further concentrates the differences between "tribes". The fact that they have wide differences in GPA and Sat requirements also tends focus these groups into narrower and narrower "tribes". This is all new and was not a part of the history of the human race.
Religion is another way that groups are further specialized and focused. Even in small communities there are many different churches available with each looking at the world differently. Friendships within the church often dominate over those in schools and other social places. Some of the religious groups promote a dogma that can be hostile to the extent of advocating the killing of those who do not share their beliefs. Are you starting to see how these widely defined groups see other groups as being "radical". It only get worse.
I could go on and on with more examples, but I think that you get the idea, but I do have one last example and that is the computer age and the person to person communication system that it supports. In all of human history there has never been a system so available to the poorest individual where they could find and communicate with any person in the world who shared their unique ideas. In the past, the chances of two or three individuals who shared the most extreme ideas every crossing paths was a big "Zero", but not any more. All the other of my points above are small potatoes compared to the impact of modern electronic communications. There is a good side to this development, but there is clearly a darker side. I have no idea where this will all end up, but I am sure that it will accelerate. At the same time, I do not see any social system that has a chance of canceling out the "dark" aspects. We know that no society in history has existed for very many years. None have made it for 1,000 years. As stable as many of us think that our current social institutions are, they are no match for the "growth of radicalism" that the human race is now facing.
PS--It gets even worse. Think about this. Historically children learned from their parents while the family was sitting at the dinner table. They were not exposed to the radical world until they were older. Now with the electronic age, they are exposed much younger when they are less prepared to judge the quality or significance. This is a big deal. Next add the impact of unionized teachers from nursery school on. If you don't see the significance, look at how churches do it. They attack little kids and brain wash them with fear from the earliest age. Now, the churches don't have a monopoly on radicalizing children who will grow up to be radicalized voting adults. Scary isn't it?
PS--Wasn't it Adolf Hitler who formed the Nazi youth corp and radicalized them to the point that they would turn on their own parents? It really is scary!
First off, we need to agree on what radicalism means. My definition is a measure of the percentage of people who have ideas or behavior that is farther and farther from the mean. The opposite of radical is a group with similar views. This is not a case of right or wrong.
Next, let's look at history. When us humans lived in small groups like cavemen or small villages and back in those days we only had contact with a few people and it did not change much over time. Because the groups were small, it was difficult to ignore odd people in your group. The affect of this was more contact with all member, even odd members. The effect was to change both you and the odd person and cause the both of you to tend toward the average. This is the starting point. In some small countries where change has been slow or cities small, they would be more homogeneous with few radicals. Finland might be one of those countries or Japan. Are you following this?
Now, what has changed? There are many, but some seem more significant to me. Bigger cities allow us to pick our friends from a larger pool. This causes the groups that are formed to be more specialized and different. Historically people were formed into "tribes". What we now have with the recent development of larger cities are new kinds of "tribes" forming.
Colleges and universities are another change with larger percentage now attending. These tend to form "tribes" with in their alumni. Recently with greater fluency, students are attending colleges and universities farther and farther away from their homes which further concentrates the differences between "tribes". The fact that they have wide differences in GPA and Sat requirements also tends focus these groups into narrower and narrower "tribes". This is all new and was not a part of the history of the human race.
Religion is another way that groups are further specialized and focused. Even in small communities there are many different churches available with each looking at the world differently. Friendships within the church often dominate over those in schools and other social places. Some of the religious groups promote a dogma that can be hostile to the extent of advocating the killing of those who do not share their beliefs. Are you starting to see how these widely defined groups see other groups as being "radical". It only get worse.
I could go on and on with more examples, but I think that you get the idea, but I do have one last example and that is the computer age and the person to person communication system that it supports. In all of human history there has never been a system so available to the poorest individual where they could find and communicate with any person in the world who shared their unique ideas. In the past, the chances of two or three individuals who shared the most extreme ideas every crossing paths was a big "Zero", but not any more. All the other of my points above are small potatoes compared to the impact of modern electronic communications. There is a good side to this development, but there is clearly a darker side. I have no idea where this will all end up, but I am sure that it will accelerate. At the same time, I do not see any social system that has a chance of canceling out the "dark" aspects. We know that no society in history has existed for very many years. None have made it for 1,000 years. As stable as many of us think that our current social institutions are, they are no match for the "growth of radicalism" that the human race is now facing.
PS--It gets even worse. Think about this. Historically children learned from their parents while the family was sitting at the dinner table. They were not exposed to the radical world until they were older. Now with the electronic age, they are exposed much younger when they are less prepared to judge the quality or significance. This is a big deal. Next add the impact of unionized teachers from nursery school on. If you don't see the significance, look at how churches do it. They attack little kids and brain wash them with fear from the earliest age. Now, the churches don't have a monopoly on radicalizing children who will grow up to be radicalized voting adults. Scary isn't it?
PS--Wasn't it Adolf Hitler who formed the Nazi youth corp and radicalized them to the point that they would turn on their own parents? It really is scary!
