[johnchristopher]

> Being surrounded by 'people like you' feels like 'home' and that anxiety goes away.

What's familiar feels safe. Maybe the long term `solution` to living among/with many different tribe members is to mix more and more people of different origin/background/culture so that it feels normal and familiar (thus safe) to be surrounded by people who are different (actually they wouldn't be different anymore).

But somehow I don't think it's easy to set up the condition for such an environment. I think mixing implies the blending of different cultures and it leads to a new mono culture made up of common or assimilated characteristics (or one culture taking it all with just some minor details from other cultures left) rather than a patchwork of strongly differentiated (untainted) cultures.

This is the great question of "how do we live together ?".

edit: I think there should be a warning about my comment. When I was young I heard a similar reasoning used to justify `racism` because it would seem it's inherent to the humane nature. The adult I heard saying that was a complete racist and he didn't hold this explanation/theory/outlook to find how to live with others but to justify his dislike of others.

[jollybean]

'Mono culture' is what happens when people from a variety of groups do live together.

They adopt 'basic civic values' - and all cultural artifacts are thrown out the door, because they can't continue to exist.

Those people go to Starbucks.

When people have actual distinctions from one another - this is where actual 'diversity' exists. People have attitudes, opinions, and especially practices that are stronger and more resilient.

This is why Starbucks can't make headway in Italy -> their local dynamics around coffee are stronger than the power of the Starbucks marketing team.

Though McDonald's does exist there, it's in a totally different capacity.

(FYI Nothing wrong with either of those companies, I'm alluding to the notion of those things being more universal and a more fundamental part of culture, which 'fast food' is in the US, and not Italy).

I really do believe we can live together, and that we mostly do - just fine.

There's some work to do with equal access and opportunity - but by and large most of the advanced world is fair to most people.

Good points though.