Birds of a Feather Fly Left or Right…

Broadwing Hawks migrate from all over North America to Ecuador. They all converge over south Texas by the thousands within a one to two week window in route to Ecuador. Amazing!

We humans don't migrate, but we flock together. Our intelligence even enables us to seek out like-minded people. It’s interesting how we steer away from people with views and ideologies we don’t like, and cling to those we do like. My son described the way a man might look for a town to live in. (I’m embellishing it a little.) He would bypass a gated community. When he saw automatic lawn sprinklers and monogenetic grass, with neatly trimmed garden shrubs piled high with new bark mulch, with new SUVs in the driveway, he kept driving.

When he started to see older, smaller foreign cars, a dandelion or two in the grass, a veggie garden in view, and even the glimpse of a clothes line in a side or back yard, then he knew he had arrived to place of like minded people. He felt comfort in seeing people and places he could relate to. We unconsciously seek comfort with things that are familiar to us, and we may even assume those people share our core values, or at least a plurality of common core values.

We see it in politics and religion the most. I don’t think anyone would get up on Sunday morning and ask the family, “Where would you like to go to church today?” It’s already decided. You know where like-minded people are and that’s where you want to be. In politics, it’s as simple as choosing to watch Fox News vs Bill Moyer’s Journal, or listening to Amy Goodman vs Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Their voices reinforce our core values. We silently nod in agreement as we listen to what they say.

Does flocking together serve to increase our sense of righteousness about our beliefs? Probably. Tom and Ray of NPR’s “Car Talk” once said two people who know absolutely nothing about a subject could convince each other they have the right solution to a problem as long as they agree. We’re all preaching to our own choirs- reinforcing our own convictions. Do we ever pull people from one side of the ideological spectrum to the other? I think not.