Groupthink

I have never noticed that Northern people stick together any more than Southern people, but then I never met all that many Southern people. One thing about Northerners is that, if you're broke down on the road or stuck in the ditch, somebody will always stop and try to help you. I think that might be more of a rural thing than a Northern thing, though. Stopping like that in the city could be dangerous, so I wouldn't blame somebody for not doing it there.

There is an article in the March issue of National Geographic titled "The War on Science". It's about all those people who don't believe in global warming, evolution, vaccinations, stuff like that. They advance the theory (studies have been done), that people tend to believe what their friends believe. If someone does change their mind on an issue, they will likely keep quiet about it because they don't want to alienate their friends. The pro-science people are no different in that respect. "Those of us in the science-communication business are as tribal as anyone else, he told me. We believe in scientific ideas not because we have truly evaluated all the evidence but because we feel an affinity for the scientific community." One of the studies found that people who were more knowledgeable about science tended to be more extreme in their beliefs, but they were just a likely to be on one side of a controversy as on the other. ".....that's because people tend to use scientific knowledge to reinforce beliefs that have already been shaped by their worldview."

It seems to me that these people have it all backwards but, I suppose, they would say the same about me. I always chose my friends based on some common interest, I didn't choose my interests based on who my friend were. That said, the only common interest I had with Jimmy next door was that he lived next door. When you're too young to cross the street by yourself you're bound to make friends with the kids on your block. As you grow older and become more mobile, you meet more people and start to realize that you have options. That doesn't mean you still can't be friends with the kids on your block, but you don't have to if you don't want to, and you certainly don't have to watch baseball games on television when you could be catching carp at Sherman Park.

I'm not into poetry all that much, although most songs are nothing but poetry set to music. Why say it when you can sing it? Just kidding, of course some pieces come across better when spoken, but many others are enhanced by putting tunes on them. I suppose, if I had a favorite poet, it would be Robert Service, certainly not Shakespeare. I don't know why people are so enthralled by Shakespeare. All he ever did was take a bunch of wise old sayings, put them together, and make plays out of them. If he was so smart, why didn't he use more original material?