#895 Clusterfolk

A while back, I read a story about the growth of “politics specific” neighborhoods—people tending to cluster in areas with other people of the same political ilk.
Now it’s been going on forever that folks like to group in tribes. I suppose it’s natural that we gravitate toward people who are similar. Makes for less arguing over the back yard fence.
And with the way they are building houses closer and closer in the new urbanly dense developments, it’s more important than ever. It also explains why some developments have covenant restrictions against political yard signs.
I saw this clustering in its rawest form the other day at a high school job fair. Each grade level came into the job fair separately and the kids had about 50 minutes to interact with the various employers like myself.
A couple of interesting dynamics: When nobody was at my booth, no one would approach for a while. Then a couple of kids would come up, in a bold foray. As if that proved my booth was safe and or cool, about 10 more students would suddenly mob me.
But after about 20 minutes, most of the students stopped coming to all of the booths and coagulated into self-enclosed groups of 5 to 7 kids. Each group would form a rough circle and its members would interact.
The clotting of kids—a basic human trait.
It’s interesting to note in the macro-group sense, that the more densely populated regions of our country tend to be Democrat and the more rural areas tend to be Republican. Democrats like the social amenities tight-living provides. You don’t see a lot of support groups and soup kitchens in North Dakota.
On the other hand, Republicans tend to be more uncompromising and self-reliant, traits that don’t work well in densely packed neighborhoods. One of my conservative friends calls big crowds clusterfolks.
The space conservatives like to maintain from each other prevents conflict. Ain’t no one gonna tell them what to do. Especially big government.
You know, the kind of suspicious, interfering, big government that hires teachers who give out report cards with snarky comments like “does not play well with others.”
America, ya gotta love it.