Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Another POV, from a 20-something source (long)

Good Points, MA
ER — (archived)

I've always felt that one of the major characteristics of modern life, alienation and isolation, can lead to social breakdown because most of the people we know do not know each other.
In traditional human communities, rural villages or big city neighborhoods, most people you know also know one another. You aren't surrrounded by strangers, and you feel you are always surrounded by an extended family. I was brought up like this, knowing if I got in trouble one of the neighbors would probably rat on me to my parents!

Now the people we hang out with, colleagues, classmates and so on, live far away and we communicate electronically and visit by automobile. You also select your friends, so you don't have to learn to live with people you have little in common with, or don't even like. When you walk out the door of your house these days you might as well be in another city...even your neighbors are strangers. The sense of anonymity, invisibility, this gives you is powerful, it makes you feel like you can get away with anything.

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