People Like Us David Brooks Summary

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Different People Imagine that you’re the new kid at school, you don’t know anybody and you’re trying your best to fit in with everyone. You later find a group who have similar interests with you and become friends. Everyone in the group understands each other and you grow more attached to them and their beliefs. One day you come into contact with a group that contradicts with your groups beliefs and you begin to argue which is right and which is wrong. Both groups try to explain their point of views and opinions but it doesn’t matter because both groups are so enchanted by their beliefs that reject anything that opposes it. In the end its just wasting your breath. In essence this is just a scenario on how the American society constructs their …show more content…
David Brooks’ mentions this in his essay “People Like Us” as he focuses on various ways by which people sort themselves with certain groups (352-356). One of his points in the essay is the way people surround themselves with other people that share their interests geographically such as a West Hollywood interior decorator feeling dislocated if you asked him to move to Orange County (352-353). The example that Brooks gives is very true, people tend to separate themselves with others who have different views and tend to group with similar people who share their views. But the separation of views consequently comes with many disputes. One result of this happened about one hundred and fifty three years ago with the American Civil War. You had the north which believed in abolishing slavery and the south who wanted to maintain their slavery and their rights. Each side defended and fought for their views but as a result many lost their lives and even though this war caused slavery to be abolished there could have been an alternative to fighting such as politically conversing with each other. So all in all, while it may good to believe in what you want, there will always be something to go against it and it could lead to each side getting

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