Are we divided (and believing crazy things) because we don’t have neighborhoods any more?

Smitemouth posted a comment with a link to an article about why people believe weird things and strange conspiracies. I think the article raises some good points, but it reminds me of something I’ve been wondering about.

Before the internet, you couldn’t be as choosy about your friends. Even little social circles of like-minded people were limited by geography, and they were mostly made up of people in your neighborhood, at work, or at school. This forced people into regular contact with all sorts.

If you were in a bowling league, or Boy Scouts, or swim team, or played poker with your neighbors, you were going to run into people with weird ideas. That was just the way it was, and you dealt with it.

“Yeah, Johnny has some weird ideas about the Kennedy assassination, but humor him. We need him on the team.”

That sort of an environment did two things. First, it moderated your craziness, because you had to get along with people who didn’t share your peculiar views, and second, it forced everybody to be more tolerant of crazy views when they did come up.

This is well-covered ground. Everybody knows that the internet allows you to be “friends” with a collection of 25 crazies from anywhere on the planet who share your nutty views about the Nephilim, or whatever.

I’m saying (and this might not be new either) there’s another side to it. By being somewhat forced to make friends and get along with people who are brought together for non-ideological reasons (live in the same neighborhood, go to the same school, work at the same factory, play the same sport), people learn to be tolerant.

If I go on a cruise, and they seat me at a table with ten other people, I’m not going to say outlandish things, and I’m not going to get into it with somebody who does. I’m going to try to get along.

Our problem is not only from the negative impact of the Internet. It’s from the lack of the positive impact that we used to have by being forced to get along with people.

Unfortunately, the internet has spoiled these real-life interactions as well. People are so used to surrounding themselves with like-minded people, and shunning people who transgress the limits, they bring that attitude into real-life situations. They assume everybody else believes what they believe, and when they find a dissenter they are intolerant.