I don't indulge in much reality television, but if I evidently have nothing else going on (a staple of this viewership), I am sure to bear witness at least once per vacant spectacle to excited geographic affiliation. I don't buy much of what transpires in TV’s refuse bin, but the “reality” format isn't necessary for people to align with invisible boundaries: a country, a state; good lord, a school district…

If it isn't genuine when, on TV, a little blonde thing touts her Kentucky roots like she came straight off the factory line (in ‘tucky we know how to get it done), it is blueprinted with care by producers to appeal to an audience that does make steadfast alliances of the heart within geographic borders.

I think a dash of independence would do you just right. Are you and your in-state neighbors such kindred spirits? I wonder, how many families nurture their own private versions of affiliate mottos and other ludicrous affirmations?

“In Washington, we…”

“In New Mexico, we…”

The conclusion is, “...do much the same as everybody else.” If you have migrated by choice to a community of some scale, take pride at your leisure. But these soporific postures of imagined esotericism by nature of incidental proximity have to go.

I can appreciate the football fan who selects his preferred brutalizers for skill. Below this, a delight in their color scheme. At bedrock, you have your team support in light of, they were closer to my house than the other guys.

Mentalities of this leprous family suppurate truculent outgroup bias. Our atavistic habit is to mold ourselves into groups - to care for the community, the team. The Others are menacing unknowns from the outside. We will conquer them.

In 2018, we know better. We should, anyway. War and indeed many other small-scale disputes take place on the butcher's board of us vs. them. I see sectarian efforts in patriotism and its ilk, biologically derived prides (in both senses) with agitated cores pushing ever up into the raucous fever pitch of nationalism.

Let me pronounce, until there is an alien presence to consider, that Team Human has my sympathies. Beyond that, I am interested in the welfare of conscious beings.