Why does it take a catastrophe or something tragic to unite people, then in a very short time the disaster is forgotten and the people are back at each other's throats? Sad.

I think it all surrounds hardship. I have this conversation frequently with my oldest brother - life is way too easy for people. Specifically Americans.

So, when tragedy strikes we experience a hardship and unite. Then it’s back to our modern, convenience-filled lives where we fill our time with bickering and fighting.

When things are going well we want our independence and little to no interference, when the crap hits the fan we want and need the support that social beings need as part of our being. Also I notice that the together time or common helping of others is shorter as time goes by, as our attention spans shorten.

Bryce

It's a product of modernism. Way back when we were hunter gathers, if a tragedy happened.....well, you probably already knew whoever it happened to, and were united with them. You didn't know what happened outside of your immediate group, and didn't care either. It didn't effect your life if the clan in the next valley had a bad winter because their best hunter broke his leg.

Now, there's a tornado in a state three states away from yours, where you don't know anyone, or third world country across the world experiences some tragedy, and we're supposed to care and want to help. But we weren't united to those folks before, why would we be now?

We lived as hunter gathers for at least 200,000 years, we've lived in an industrial society with modern news sources for maybe 250 years (and that's only if you lived in a big city for the first half of that). We've only had news sources to tell us what's happening outside our immediate circle for a couple hundred years. It's not in human nature to really care about everything wrong in the world

It's human nature to be xenophobic of people groups that aren't part of their immediate circle. Being distrustful of those not like you and not part of your group kept you alive as a hunter gatherer. It's genetic. A tragedy 500 miles away isn't going to change that.