I like what I like, and I can’t always describe why that is. To paraphrase Potter Stewart, I’ll know it when I see it. Take my music tastes: when I put my iPod on shuffle, it’s likely that within the first hour, I’ll hear Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Dvorak, The Band, Taylor Swift (don’t you dare judge me), James Brown, Coltrane, Hank Williams, Gnarls Barkley, Woody Guthrie, Arcade Fire, the Animals, and myriad other disparate styles of music, and I’ll be bopping my head and singing along to each just as passionately.  So, I’d argue the claim that people will always seek out things that are similar to the things they like already–the things I already like aren’t even necessarily similar to each other in the first place.  So, streaming services have never really worked for me the way they’re intended to.  I need to get recommendations about new bands from my friends, most of whom are voracious consumers of music and always on the lookout for something new–as I am.

What’s more, if I lived in a neighborhood that didn’t have a grocery store where I could get bok choy, tahini, or serrano chiles (“hispanic vegetables” are your friends, they’re delicious!) I’d either burn a lot of gas driving to one that did, move, or become depressed.  My taste in food is also eclectic. I can’t remotely imagine myself going to the same five restaurants for the rest of my life, not when there are a dozen different kinds of ethnic food I’d be in the mood for right now.  Maybe it’s because I’m from Los Angeles, a huge city with an incredibly diverse population, not only ethnically but economically, but I don’t see any value in not challenging myself to go outside my comfort zone.  In fact, I’d go a step further: If I was around a bunch of people who thought and acted and bought the same things as me, first I’d wonder if I was dreaming, since I’m not sure such a place exists, but if it was real, THAT’S when I’d be uncomfortable.  I think when you get large and diverse populations living in a relatively compact area like you do in Los Angeles, the Zip Code thing starts to break down. The Zip Codes are too small, and even so it’s hard to define a specific type of person that lives in any of them.  To expand, I drive through ten Zip Codes on the way to the beach from my house; crossing those boundaries isn;t only not unusual, it’s the norm.

Maybe I’m just an iconoclast, but I think that way of living is better, and most of the people I know had similar experiences of being exposed to diversity constantly from a young age, and I think they’d agree that it’s better than never challenging your expectations. Go online and find recipes you’ve never heard of before and make them! Listen to your friend’s iPod in their car even though they only like EDM! Maybe you’ll find something new to love, and either way it’s better than stagnation.  American nationalism can be a celebration of diversity as long as you’re willing to be adventurous, not a weakening retreat into a mosaic of separate, homogenous cultures.