Kris Jensen Blog

Are you Red or are you Blue?  I suspect that without any explanation you know that I’m referring to the political color-coding used by television reporters to flag voting outcomes.  Somewhere along the line, though, this seemingly innocuous way of reporting results has apparently lead us to believe that we can’t have ideologies, opinions or philosophies that aren’t somehow connected to one of only two political parties. 

Or is there something more sinister at foot?  Recently a prestigious university found that despite our open access to more factual information, we tend to only seek out the information that agrees with our already held beliefs.  Not only are we seeking out sources of information that concur with our views, we’re also moving to live with those of like mind.  Now entire neighborhoods, cities and states are defined by a political point of view.  While increasing our individual comfort zones on our own “turf”, does this limited view have the potential of tearing the country apart? 

Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, makes a compelling case for how we’re losing our national identity, our openness to diversity and potentially our ability to innovate and adapt.   “The reason like-minded groups get more extreme over time is that people always want to be a little bit more extreme than the group is as a whole so they’re not mistaken for an outsider.”  Sound familiar?  It should and it should make you afraid, very afraid.  As conflicts between groups intensify along with an unwillingness to hear other views, is the logical outcome at best, inaction or at its worst, violence?  If we won’t stay open to learning from each other where we are of like mind, how will we ever live out the principles that made this country great and interpret them accurately for the generations to come?  If we fail, hopefully our children will have learned how critical it is to resurrect the Spirit of America.