This is stunning.

"The ideal of an 'American way of life' is fading as the working class falls further away from institutions like marriage and religion and the upper class becomes more isolated. Charles Murray on what's cleaving America, and why..."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577170733817181646.html

It's also (tragically) funny that people don't think this stuff matters.

What do you think is the basis of a society?

I don't know that there is a basis of society, if there ever was one.

I see cultural inequality in my own family, much less between neighbors and neighboring towns.  It was seemingly apparent (to me) in the subtly segregated seating arrangement at the wedding...the doctors and attorneys have a certain air to them, an aloofness.  The poorer/unsavoury members are quicker to laugh and more at ease with joking about regular things.  Guess where I sat? 

I am looking forward to parsing out more info regarding my family and our history...there's a lot more than meets the eye...but if family is a smaller nuclear unit indicative of what's going on in society at large (and I believe it is), I have to sit back and wonder...I fear the divide will only grow wider. 

I think the basis of a society is/are it's people.

I read thru Murray's article. And as he states a few times that his study group is white American's, I can't really add much. Or relate in all honesty, as I am not a part of his focus, or research group. 

"...and that religious Americans also account for much more nonreligious social capital than their secular neighbors."

I do like the point he makes here though. I have no religion, and I know I spend less of my small capital earnings because of my life choices. My thoughts on the idea of an American way of life are also pretty out there. To boil it down, I think if people are happy doing what they're doing, and what they're doing is working for them, then they're doing all right. The only constant in life is change. : )

Just my two cents on it.

Good point Mina regarding white America.  My family's Asian and the immigrant factor is a huge wild card.

Thanks Jennifer, and you're also right in that the immigrant factor is a wild card. One of many I would consider. My family is so mixed breed that I am not the same ethnicity or religion as all of my American family, save for my brother.

We have separate cultural/religious identities, and ways of thinking about things, yet we all identify (and are viewed) as people of color. Thank goodness for my brother! he's okay for a boy/sibling. ;)

Threadjack alert LOL.

I have never met most of my family on this coast until this weekend.  I would like to know more about our separate cultural/religious identities, etc., especially on an individual level.  It's all been a big haze for most of my life (natal 12th house Pluto), with more contact with the dead than the living.

*mock gasp*

Jennifer! ;)

That sounds like something to look into, and study if possible, especially now that you've met so many of them in person. Okay, now I'm done/out.

Thanks Mina, have a great evening!  Always good to see you on here.  :)

Jennifer--: )

This makes me sad. Most of my clients are blue-collar workers (more likelihood of an on-the-job injury) and it really bums me out. I don't feel like society supports them socially regarding marriage, religion, career, finances, anything. I feel like the last few generations of people have placed such a a high emphasis on "independence" that we're constantly rebuilding the wheel, and never learning from the generations before.

At that note, I don't think that anyone really gets any sort of support for marriage. It's... you're on your own, or you need therapy. No one will just sit down and give you some non-judgemental advice.  

Great article Elsa, Thanks.

@BW, that was really well-said.  I agree.  :)

a quiz via Murray's website that I found via Gawker:

http://www.aei.org/book/society-and-culture/coming-apart-the-state-of-white-america-1960-2010/

I took the quiz and was disappointed not to see any results or stats. :(

Oh weird, mine worked.

Bummer! It must be a pop-up or something.

I am completely culturally isolated from the rest of America according to Murray.

<drops monocle>

I had to pause Ghostery for it to work:

"On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 9 and 12.  In other words, even if you're part of the new upper class, you've had a lot of exposure to the rest of America."

I got the same as Jilly.. gotta say though, when I think of mainstream America, I would not have automatically thought of the items listed.  This is probably a product though of me being born, raised, and having spent my entire life (except for the last 2 years) living in California. 

"On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16. In other words, you don't even have a bubble."

:::feeling quite exposed without something protective:::

On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 5 and 8.

In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.

The ideal is a lovely one. The premise of this book is on the unprecedented class-based cultural gap, so does the book mention what the US was like prior to 1960 or is it strictly 1960-2010? To me there were golden years for this, but I wonder if it was a short window, and highly irregular historically for the US.

I'm going to look for this book in the lib.

I got a 0. I can't see outta my bubb, people!

It does interest me that my score would would have been higher if there had been any indicators of Black, Latino or Asian America on that list. I interact with those cultures more than I do with white working class culture, which tends to exist on the periphery of NYC more than in its center. I imagine people from big cities might have a similar experience with that quiz.

I am also only partly American, not born here, etc.

I'm echoing kr.  I think this test/paper mostly applies to white, working class America.  Perhaps also to the Midwest/Heartland region.

Good points, kr.  :) 

If you are someone who is isolated with your own kind, do you see a problem with it?  I don't.

It's not for me because I like variety and range and I attract these things.  But I think you should hang with the people you like and learn from, whoever they might be.

In sheer numbers, does white, working class americans make up most of the population? I haven't looked at 2010 census numbers, not sure what the current percentages are...

Has anyone come across the lastest estimates in the news, perhaps? I don't keep tabs on the numbers as much recently, not in the US right now. And I got a 5-8 on that test, which is about right.

I scored between 9 and 12, but I'm definitely NOT upper middle-class. That would be my grandparents. Meanwhile, I live in a trailer park and wear a uniform to work.

Uranus in the 11th, anyone?

Being isolated with the same type of people all the time isn't for me, but I don't see how that could be a problem if it's what a person wants.

That test said my bubble is THICK. I can see this phrase making its way into popular culture (not that I would know what that is according to this test,, mind you), as an insult: "Ma'am, you are a thick-bubbled biddy."

Well you've got this blog, kr, and we are most definitly diverse! :)

That's why I like it here. :)

That was a fascinating quiz but left me wondering because half the answers seemed to relate to owning a TV or drinking. 

I read that article and I found it fascinating. I scored a 5-8 on the test and also think it's partially because I'm not a white American. I was born into the bubble I"m in! And my parents' and grandparents' bubble is even tinier. Their experience is similar to growing up on an American Indian reservation.

That said, I think the basis of a society is - simply put -  "the law of the land." What you can get away with vs what you can't get away with.