Yeah, I'm not certain this isn't how people are by default when encountering someone they view to belong to a different "tribe". The problem in North America ma

Yeah, I'm not certain this isn't how people are by default when encountering someone they view to belong to a different "tribe". The problem in North America may be that we are too individualistic and don't focus enough on what we all have in common. Of course you can work on overriding your default behavior as well, but part of losing the cynicism is recognizing we all struggle with things in our lives and we all have things we care about. I feel good relationships are founded on trying to have some compassion for other people's struggles and trying to respect what other people care about.