Describe a time when you had a successful conversation with someone in an tribe opposed to yours.

Read 4.20 America wasn’t Built for Humans by Andrew Sullivan ANSWER the prompt below by copying the prompt and answering the question

Type your responses to the following questions and then further discuss these ideas when you reply to your classmates:

In his essay America Wasnt Built for Humans,” Andrew Sullivan explains why tribalism has come to dominate American society and why he thinks this is a problem.

1. In a short response, discuss what Sullivans solution to the problem is. What does he think can be done to reduce the level of tribalism in this country?

Sullivan argues that America is becoming a nation made up of tribes of people who believe so strongly in their tribes positions that they cannot listen to differing views and view members of other tribes as not just mistaken, but evil and dangerous.

Sullivan points out the following: “Healthy tribalism endures in civil society in benign and overlapping ways. We find a sense of belonging, of unconditional pride, in our neighborhood and community; in our ethnic and social identities and their rituals; among our fellow enthusiasts. There are hip-hop and country-music tribes; bros; nerds; Wasps; Dead Heads and Packers fans; Facebook groups. (Yes, technology upends some tribes and enables new ones.)”

2. What tribes do you belong to?

In addition to these small-scale tribes, Sullivan argues the following:

“Over the past couple of decades in America, the enduring, complicated divides of ideology, geography, party, class, religion, and race have mutated into something deeper, simpler to map, and therefore much more ominous. I dont just mean the rise of political polarization (although thats how it often expresses itself), nor the rise of political violence (the domestic terrorism of the late 1960s and 70s was far worse), nor even this countrys ancient black-white racial conflict (though its potency endures).

I mean a new and compounding combination of all these differences into two coherent tribes, eerily balanced in political power, fighting not just to advance their own side but to provoke, condemn, and defeat the other.

I mean two tribes whose mutual incomprehension and loathing can drown out their love of country, each of whom scans current events almost entirely to see if they advance not so much their countrys interests but their own. I mean two tribes where one contains most racial minorities and the other is disproportionately white; where one tribe lives on the coasts and in the cities and the other is scattered across a rural and exurban expanse; where one tribe holds on to traditional faith and the other is increasingly contemptuous of religion altogether; where one is viscerally nationalist and the others outlook is increasingly global; where each dominates a major political party; and, most dangerously, where both are growing in intensity as they move further apart.”

3. Do you agree with Sullivan about the existence of these two major tribes in America today? Do you belong to one of them?

4. Describe a time when you had a successful conversation with someone in an tribe opposed to yours.

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