LOB Book Club - The Big Sort: Chapter 1
In Chapter 1, Bill Bishop puts forward his central argument that given increased financial independence, "The old systems of order - around land, family, class, tradition, and religious denomination - gave way. They were replaced over the next thirty years with a new order based on individual choice" (p. 39). What are your initial thoughts about this thesis?
posted by The Blue Devil @ 12:00 PM
2 Comments:
That was my exact thought 5 pages into the Introduction. Am I going to have to read the whole book to know that I'm right? *grin*
Although it was published last year, Bishop's argument already seems to be a bit dated. First, Barack's election went some way toward exploding the myth of a polarized electorate (no one really talks about the "Red/Blue divide anymore, do they?). Second, the current economic crisis has exposed the lack of financial independence at the core of the "American Dream." Most of us move in order to find work, not to find a coffee klatch that makes us feel comfortable.
As I'm dipping my toe into publishing for the first time, I'm starting to understand the foibles contained therein. You right a manuscript, pitch it to a number of publishers over the course of months or years. Perhaps someone decides to publish it, and then it goes through another interminable period of edits and revisions. I'm guessing that Bishop started this after the 2004 Presidential election and completed it some time between the mid-term elections in fall of 2006 and before the Presidential election last fall. Still, he'll have to address these issues in future editions.
So, is it really true at this point that people are moving around merely in order to self-segregate?
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