02-27-2014, 05:11 PM
cbelt3 wrote:
swampy-
Let's take this to a local and personal level. In an allegorical neighborhood, you can either have a controlling tribalism or a more open collaborative environment.
Which neighborhood functions better ? The one where those who 'do not belong' are driven out or forced to become a member of the tribe ? Or the one where everyone is neighborly and cooperative regardless of tribal elements ?
In my personal experience, the cooperative environment is better. I've lived in a tribal neighborhood. Those people were jerks. I hated it. My wife hated it. My children hated it. Even though we *were* members of their 'tribe', we chafed under the imposed limits and petty dictatorships of the tribal 'councils' (HOA, PTA, etc..)
"Freedom" in society is not the freedom to be a complete ass to others in the society. It's the freedom to interact with everyone in the manner of your choosing, as long as it's polite and respectful.
Freedom to be an ass is anarchy. Society breaks down. Politeness and mutual respect are the glues that hold societies together at a meta level.
As I was reading that, it reminded me of an interview I saw on television. The reporter went to a rural town in the South (don't remember exactly where) that was mostly populated with white evangelical Christians. The town had elected a young openly gay man as their mayor and the reporter was curious about how that came about so he interviewed many people in the town. One particular interview especially stayed with me. The interviewee was a middle aged farmer who seemed to be a fairly simple and straightforward thinker. When asked why he voted for the gay guy to be mayor he replied that the mayor was doing a very good job. The town was definitely better off for him being mayor. When specifically asked about the mayor being gay, the farmer paused a little as though he were reliving an internal struggle he had once had with himself and then said (paraphrasing) with a little sheepishness in his voice, "He didn't choose to be gay, that's just the way he is." You could tell that it hadn't come easy for him to go against the the meme of his evangelical tribe that being gay is a lifestyle choice. But he knew the mayor personally to be a good guy and could see for himself that that being gay is just the way the mayor is in spite of what his evangelical tribe was trying to tell him (although it probably helped that many of the immediate tribe in his town were shifting their attitudes).