Them: Why We Hate Each Other--and How to Heal

✍ Scribed by Ben Sasse

• Publisher: Griffin
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 215
• Edition: Reprint
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Something is wrong. We all know it. American life expectancy is declining for a third straight year. Birth rates are dropping. Nearly half of us think the other political party isn’t just wrong; they’re evil. We’re the richest country in history, but we’ve never been more pessimistic. What’s causing the despair? In Them, bestselling author and U.S. senator Ben Sasse argues that our crisis isn’t really about politics. It’s that we’re so lonely we can’t see straight - and it bubbles out as anger. Local communities are collapsing. Across the nation, little leagues are disappearing, Rotary clubs are dwindling, and in all likelihood, we don’t know the neighbour two doors down. Work isn’t what we’d hoped: less certainty, few lifelong coworkers, shallow purpose. Stable families and enduring friendships - life’s fundamental pillars - are in statistical freefall. As traditional tribes of place evaporate, we rally against common enemies so we can feel part of a team. No institutions command widespread public trust, enabling foreign intelligence agencies to use technology to pick the scabs on our toxic divisions. We’re in danger of half of us believing different facts than the other half, and the digital revolution throws gas on the fire. There’s a path forward - but reversing our decline requires something radical: a rediscovery of real places and human-to-human relationships. Even as technology nudges us to become rootless, Sasse shows how only a recovery of rootedness can heal our lonely souls. America wants you to be happy, but more urgently, America needs you to love your neighbour and connect with your community. Fixing what's wrong with the country depends on it.

✦ Table of Contents

Begin Reading
Table of Contents
About the Author
Copyright Page
1
2
3
*
Why the Chicago Heat Wave Isn’t Capitalized
Loneliness Kills
Not All Depression Is Depression
The Prophet of Social Capital
The Scissors Graph Society
Haves and Have-Nots
Fathers and Margins for Error
Can We Admit the Goodnight Moon Gap Yet?
The Parent Lottery
How to Be Happy
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
When America’s Number One Job Dies
Frankenstein Faster and Faster
The Unexpected History of ATMs
How the Future Might Work
Could Half of Work Disappear by 2030?
Naming the Monster That Haunts Us
I Need You to Need Me
The Shift from Nouns to Verbs
Confessions of a Digital Nomad
The Hometown-Gym-on-a-Friday-Night Feeling
Loved by My TV Family