dots in the shark

Recently I was listening to someone talk about “divisive factors”– race, class, religion, that sort of thing – and the contrarian in me wondered if “divisive” might be a mischaracterization. The question of whether diversity helps or hurts a nation’s political environment is an empirical one, and I can think of examples that point in either direction.

Perhaps people will find things to hate each other about no matter how similar they are. Perhaps broad categories like race or religion actually serve to organize and mollify what would otherwise be a more chaotic and frightening melee.

Just a thought.

# posted by Jeff Brown @ 6:27 PM