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Comment by noir-york | Hacker News Reader

"The room also brought back memories for Kranz of a shared sense of purpose.

"That group of people united in pursuit of a cause, and basically the result was greater than the sum of the parts. There was a chemistry that was formed," Kranz said."

The Cold War undoubtedly helped, though my impression (I am not American) is that there was a greater sense of social cohesion back then (that did not include minorities).

Assuming social cohesion is a public good, i.e., public policy should help bring it about without having to engineer a cold war, how would a society go about it? National service?

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> The Cold War undoubtedly helped, though my impression (I am not American) is that there was a greater sense of social cohesion back then (that did not include minorities).

Not to be dismissive, but... no. You're talking about the time of the Civil Rights era and the Vietnam war. When you hear Americans talk about how utterly divided these times are, keep in mind that, on the whole, we have no sense of history and the attention span of a gnat.

Got a point there; a I forgot that this was also the time of the Vietnam war / Civil Rights.

Just as an example, Gil Scott-Heron's critique: https://genius.com/Gil-scott-heron-whitey-on-the-moon-annota..., or: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4

Greater sense of social cohesion is often when dissenting views were more successfully hidden, quashed or marginalised. Depends whether you read the news or the history book. Read some biographies of comedians, actors or other non-military types who got drafted, or the lower rank military whether special forces, simple squaddie or aircrew in whichever era. You'll get a very different picture. Usually the far more interesting picture than that from politicians, general or admiral, but much less sense of purpose showing.

Perhaps something can achieve that, but I suspect it needs to be as clear, obvious and existential for all as the historical moments. Even then it won't be nearly as cohesive as history makes you think.

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