Jay Manifold points to an interesting article by David Brooks in The Atlantic, in which Brooks observes that Americans pay lip service to diversity, but don't actually care about it. Rather, we prefer to spend time with "people like us" (PLUs) -- whoever "us" happens to be. Subcultures abound. Greenies hang out with greenies, libertarians want to migrate to their own state, evangelical Christians have their own network of bookstores and radio stations and such, urbanites never leave the city, rural folks think the cities are dens of corruption, and most folks don't know how the other 95% live or think. Was it always this way? Perhaps. And perhaps it's not even a bad thing -- perhaps people are happier spending time with PLUs, perhaps a lack of diversity leads to societal harmony. But the cognitive dissonance of praising diversity and living in segmentation may not be healthy.