Quote:
Originally Posted by Ledgem
Interesting observation. It makes sense, too. The United States has always been a diverse nation, and that diversity has arguably increased at a faster pace in recent years with globalization.
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It's not just that. Technology has fundamentally changed society in ways never before seen. The old and the young are often very different groups. This has always been true, but people live longer today than they ever have, so the clash is more prevalent. For example, when my mother was born, television was new and color wasn't even prevalent. Today, screens are bigger and higher resolution than ever, and content is far more diverse than the old antenna ever provided. There's more of an overlap in generations than we've ever seen in history.
There's an exponential increase in the advancement of technology, and we've hit a tipping point where those advancements come in years instead of decades. This is why the notion of the Singularity holds credibility. There's a huge clash of ideas going on right now, essentially a battle between old and new. Economics, politics, religion, you name it, established aspects of society are increasingly unable to keep pace with the speed of change and those who are changing with it. That's the root of anxiety facing people right now. The world is changing, and they feel left behind. People naturally fear change, the unknown, and cling to tradition.
Sadly, it inevitably leads to bringing out the worst in people, often in violent and otherwise destructive ways.