Stephens and Collins have a weekly conversation at the NYTimes.
When he noted a fairly widespread fear of civil war, she had a response with which I agree--a sentence:
It’s very possible things look worse than they are because we’re experiencing a revolution in communication more dramatic than anything since the invention of a national postal service.
Big changes in technology usually require a period of adjustment by society. You can see that in the novels of Dickens, in the writings of Thoreau and his fellow Romantices, in the literature of the 1920's, etc.
The advent of the internet, particularly the cellphone/internet connection, is such a change. Father Time will dissolve some of the partisanship we're experiencing now. As we grow more used to the technology and develop norms to deal with the problems it brings we'll settle down into patterns which will become familiar and comfortable to us.
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