Can YOU see outside your OWN BOX ? 

If so, how did that come about for you ? 

Goose wrote:

tennyson wrote:

Can YOU see outside your OWN BOX ? 

If so, how did that come about for you ? 

Like a lot of Americans, I came to be shaped by my upbringing.

My paternal Grandparents immigrated from Italy, and raised a large family here. So, I know a bit of the immigrant experience.

I was born in Lock Haven, a small river town that had a teachers college, a paper mill, and a Piper aircraft factory. My mothers family has been here in those mountains for generations. Always poor, and poorly educated.
The town experienced exactly the sort of economic loss that so many communities in rural and small town America  have that has led to the populist revolt. When I was in high School, Piper aircraft moved their operations to Florida. Lots of people, decent hardworking people, lost their secure middle class lives due to some decisions made in a board room in New York City. Unemployment rocketed to nearly 26% in the 1970s. There was an exodus, and economic stagnation. The population of the town is less than it was in 1960.
I know that world.

And I decided that I was not going to live my life like a puppet on a string held by some pezzonovante (Big shot).

So, I entered the work of academia. I made a long journey. And I've come to know that world.

And now, while my feet are firmly planted in that world, I still remember the world that my cousins inhabit back in Lock Haven. Still remember my grandparents' struggle.

I guess that there are advantages to actually living in a couple of different "Bubbles" in one's life.

My understanding is imperfect. But I try. I think that I have an understanding of the frustrations of rural poor and working class white America. But, I don't understand the godawful decisions they make in the voting booth.

Travel is also important. And I mean travel that takes you out of your comfort zone. It is difficult to maintain prejudices when you see someone who does not look like you caress his wife's cheek, take a child's hand, or laugh at a joke. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. 

Agreed. 

Till you have widespread experience, it is rather difficult outside your own "bubble". It is certainly comfortable for many of us to stay in our own boxes and unfortunately that is exactly what happens to many.