You voted for Donald Trump. Soon after your celebrations died down, did you find yourself wondering: How could so many people have voted for Hillary Clinton?
After all, her terrible qualities were on display for all to see: She didn’t want to make America great. (She thought America was “already” great, which it obviously wasn’t.) She said nothing to convince you that she wasn’t a corrupt liar. With all her “baggage,” her elite support, and her problems with emails, it was (to you, at least) plain as day that she was a terrible candidate.
And yet tens of millions of your fellow citizens voted for her. In fact, she got almost three million more votes than her opponent! How was this possible?
The answer is, tens of millions of Americans saw her differently than you do. Why? Because, all over the country, people live in communities whose habits, ideas, lifestyle, and values are far different from those you take for granted. Why are you not aware of this?
Perhaps because you live in a bubble.
Not a soap bubble, like the ones kids create with a little wand and a bottle of liquid. It would be impossible to live in that kind of bubble; even the gigantic, ultra-wobbly bubbles people make on the beach, out of buckets of suds and big, unfolding frames, are barely large enough to accommodate a child, and such bubbles usually burst within half a minute or so—hardly long enough to live in!
No, we mean an epistemic bubble. (“Epistemic” means “related to stuff you think you know.”) You live in a self-contained, and therefore limited, “bubble” of information—a small mini-universe cut off from the rest of the world. You may think that your favorite television shows, radio programs, online sites, and other media, provide you with all the information you need to understand the world. But that’s only partially true. They allow you to understand your world. But there are many other worlds out there—worlds where people watch and listen to different things, read different things, eat different ways, and so on.
How can you tell if you live in such a bubble? Take the following quiz. Simply answer each question as honestly and accurately as you can. Then tally up your score at the end, and see what the result just might reveal to you about how small your world actually is.
- Have you ever lived for at least a year in the United States at a family income that was considered middle-class?
You may answer “yes” if your family income was over $30,000 in 2010 dollars. A term in a prison in which the annual average cost of incarceration exceeds $30,000 per prisoner doesn’t count.
a. Yes
b. No
c. I am less than a year old.
- Who is Damien Chazelle?
a. A hard-throwing left hander for the Cincinnati Reds
b. Some clothing designer or something
c. A movie director
- Arugula is—
a. A city in Italy
b. The diminutive of the sound made by an old-fashioned car horn
c. A salad green
- A man at a party asks you to recommend “a good IPA.” What is he talking about?
a. A retirement plan
b. A flavorful beer
c. An accountant
- A man at a party asks, “Do you tweet?” What do you do?
a. Punch him in the nose.
b. Answer, “No, but occasionally I chirp.”
c. Say yes, and then ask him how many followers he has.
- How do you spell “Pilates”?
- What is a Vegan?
a. An alien from outer space
b. A discontinued mid-sized Chevrolet
c. A person who doesn’t eat meat, eggs, or dairy
- How many people do you know who don’t smoke (including children)?
a. 0
b. 1-10
c. I don’t know anyone.
- Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft are—
a. Three of Santa’s reindeer on injured reserve, who don’t fly
b. A multi-platinum jazz-fusion supergroup
c. Anti-depressants
- Who or what is Will Shortz?
a. A brand of athletic underwear
b. The Puzzle Editor of the N.Y. Times
c. A complicated technique for buying and selling stocks
- What do Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Opheibea Quist-Arcton, and Nedda Ulaby have in common?
a. They are all characters in the science fiction novel Dune.
b. They are all names of computer operating systems.
c. They all work for National Public Radio.
- To what does “Yo-Yo Ma” refer?
a. A “street” taunt among African-Americans
b. A classical cellist
c. A Thai chicken-and-rice dish
- Have you ever gone deep-sea fishing on a charter boat with Ernest Hemingway?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Don’t remember
- Have you ever lived for at least a year in an American neighborhood in which the majority of your fifty nearest neighbors read, or at least started, or at least owned a copy of, Infinite Jest?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Don’t know what the question means.
- Have you ever held a job that caused your feelings to be hurt by the end of the day?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Have no feelings
- Have you ever had a close friend who was an atheist?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Atheists don’t have friends.
- Have you ever had a close friend who got straight A’s in school, even if they didn’t try hard?
a. Yes
b. No
c. I know someone like that but I hate him/her.
- What is the difference between Josh Rogen, Josh Rogin, and Rogan Josh?
a. One is an actor, one is an analyst on CNN, and the third is an example of Indian cuisine
b. One is a sportscaster, one is a Jiu-Jitsu expert, and the third is a kind of joke.
c. They’re all the same thing but two are spelled wrong.
- Do you know who Mark Walberg is?
a. Host of Antiques Roadshow
b. Actor star of Boogie Nights, Shooter, The Departed, etc.
- Have you or your spouse ever bought a Prius?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Not married.
21. During the last year, have you bought an amusingly presumptuous Chateauneuf du Pape for your own personal consumption?
22. Which of the following movies have you seen (in a theater or on DVD)?
- Citizen Kane
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- 8 ½
- The Third Man
- Jules et Jim
- L’Avventura
- Last Year at Marienbad
- Top Hat
- All About Eve
- Palm Beach Story
23. Which of these tv series have you watched regularly?
- Gilmore Girls
- The Fall
- Downton Abbey
- Happy Valley
- Breaking Bad
- Robot
- Bloodline
- Nova
- Six Feet Under
- The Good Wife
24. What does the word “Dolly” mean?
a. A child’s toy
b. A country-western singer-songwriter
c. A movie camera on a movable frame
25. Have you ever vaped?
a. No, because I would never do such a thing.
b. Not knowingly.
c. Yes, but it was an accident and I was drunk.
SCORING
Give yourself one point for every question you answered.
IF YOU SCORED 1 TO 25 POINTS – You read The Sherman Oaks Review of Books, and so you do not live in an epistemic bubble, although if you voted for Trump, you are an epistemic idiot.
IF YOU SCORED 0 POINTS – Either you do not know how to read, or you have not read this article. In either case, you live in an epistemic bubble. Try to get out as soon as possible. Good luck!
John Pasden
http://tinyurl.com/n82nz6c
