11-03-2016, 08:51 AM
(11-03-2016, 07:27 AM)Odin Wrote:(11-02-2016, 04:14 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: In the case of our neighborhood the "parents-with-primary-school/pre-school-kids" tribe have their own little social network they used to invite other tribe members to their quasi-exclusive block party, held a couple of blocks from our house. They purposely made it exclusive and have no intention to invite the overall neighborhood. Of course I have my intel sources so in spite of not getting the word via the private social network, I still found out. It's been this way the past 3 - 4 years. Prior to that, things were normal. Along with some other comments here, I attribute the shift to a newer, younger group of parents - a mixture of younger Nintendo Xers and older Millies. They are so into the tribe thing. They have no concept of an overarching geographically defined community. In spite of many expressed "liberal" sentiments about diversity and inclusion, when it comes down to it, they like their tribe of a narrow range of cohort and residential living arrangements. They have purposely excluded, without being explicit about it, anyone who is not of their tribe.
I blame this on the current political polarization. People are voluntarily segregating themselves in order to limit exposure to people who disagree with them.
It isn't political, though. Our school has both Trump supporters and Clinton supporters, and things like that still involve all the families who have kids in the relevant classes, irrespective of political leaning. If anything, we catch a bit of flak from the school about our daughter being friends mostly with a specific set of other girls - not sorted by political leaning as far as I know - rather than being "friends" with everyone.