…it’s not to do with immigration.
I definitely feel like we have less sense of belonging and community than a generation ago. But I think it’s more to do with the atomisation and monetisation of our culture than immigration.
30 years ago we all watched the same TV because there were only four channels and you couldn’t watch whatever, whenever. Soaps and Saturday evenings and Christmas Day got 20m+ viewers.
We all saw the same films.
We all listened to the same music. The Top 40 was big news and everyone knew who was number one.
Going to a sporting event or a gig was relatively cheap, so available to all.
The news was the news. There weren’t ten versions of it to pick a favourite from, one for every political persuasion.
Now all that is gone. We exist in little bubbles. We have been gifted endless choice and have all chosen different things. Where groups do exist, they’re often online rather than in real life, and often goad from a distance rather than seek common ground in person.
We are an island of strangers. Nothing to do with immigrants though.