This article, which theorizes one framework for conceptualizing four American cultural and sociological world views is interesting as perhaps a potentially non-inflammatory tool to start a conversation with other fellow Americans. This would come in handy at George Packer family gatherings given the political, literary, dramatic and academic family history. I don’t know that I would have been comfortable with my sister one year behind me at Yale, my grandfather’s rejection by Southern Alabama Democrats for acknowledging some sharecroppers went to bed hungry in the Great Depression or how I would handle as a 12 year old child my father’s self euthanasia .

It did send me scurrying to the replies to see how Medium Readers would react. I found myself clapping for those who were fairly clinical in observing or pondering how they might fit one or more aspects and how the ideas might be used for wedges into understanding views different than their own. I found myself literally laughing out loud and simultaneously having a sad sinking feeling for responses that railed against a “them” and others who took the hypothesis as a launch point to viscerally pronounce concrete prophecies using a literary thesis type work by an academic background / Peace Corp / accomplished author of ideas and conceptual frameworks.

Thank you George Packer for summarizing work from your latest book — I’m a reader who has a lot of manual labor going on so I can never read enough … and I’m a wanna be listener who is working to seek to just understand while listening rather than focusing on developing my reply. I really liked the intro which talked about the power of “stories” — anyone who gets to sit with and drink a cup of coffee and listen to your stories by my guess is probably most days entertained and lucky (everyone has good days and bad days).