It wasn\u2019t necessary to serve in World War II to know such fellowship. Well into the \u201960s, many Americans grew up in towns that had no private schools or gated communities. They lived among, went to school with, worked next to and got to know all kinds of people. Starting in the \u201970s, though, America started to undergo a demographic transformation that has since been dubbed \u201cthe Big Sort.\u201d More and more Americans started seeking out people who shared their cultural and political inclinations, moving to regions that over time became populated with like-minded citizens. In the words of Bill Bishop and Robert G. Cushing, who identified and named the Big Sort in their 2008 book titled after the phenomenon, they chose to live in \u201ccommunities of sameness\u2026whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible.\u201d The result is postmodern America, a walled-off land in which you need not spend time with, much less befriend anyone, who disagrees with you about anything of importance\u2014and in which you thus become more likely to demonize the strangers with whom you do disagree.<\/p>\n
The fact that we now live in such a country has, I suspect, something to do with the steadily growing popularity of \u201cThe Best Years of Our Lives.\u201d Whether we realize it or not, Wyler\u2019s poignant portrait of a nation recovering from war reminds all who watch it that America used to be a far friendlier place\u2014and makes you wonder what will become of a land whose angry, distrustful citizens are increasingly choosing to live solely among their own kind.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n ICYMI, I revisit William Wyler\u2019s \u201cThe Best Years of Our Lives\u201d in my latest @wsj<\/a> \u201cSightings\u201d column, and consider what it has to tell us about the polarization of present-day America. Would that it were less timely: https:\/\/t.co\/UydSsJtRnp<\/a><\/p>\n — (((Terry Teachout))) (@terryteachout) October 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n