hell’s handmaiden

RightReason has an interesting piece on some of Robert D. Putnam’s recent work on social diversity, trust, and something he calls ’social capital’. Putnam, for the record, is a professor of sociology at Harvard. In short:

… ethnic diversity undermines social capital, because it undermines social trust.
…

“In the presence of [ethnic] diversity, we hunker down. We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.” Case in point? Los Angeles: “the most diverse human habitation in human history” - and, not coincidentally, the most untrusting place in the U.S.A. today.