Hi Robert,

thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that a big challenge we face collectively is groups of people rejecting other groups of people and refusing to look at the world from their perspective. (To chose just one example, some groups of Christians have a lot to answer for in terms of forcing their view points onto other groups of people.)

I also wholeheartedly repeat what I said in the article: human beings need “villages.” We need the support of a multi-generational group, beyond just our nuclear family, upon whom we can rely and to whom we are responsible. (This is not to deny the importance of the nuclear family; just to stay that by itself, it’s not enough.)

A degree of like-mindedness within our village does not have to mean that we reject other view points, merely that we surround ourselves with people who can help us live our best lives and, by extension, make a greater contribution to the collective well-being.

In case it should be in any doubt, let me borrow some words with which to describe what I mean by “village:”

“[A] relatively small … multi-generational [community]. … within which individuals know one another well, share the joys, burdens, and sorrows of everyday life, nurture one another in times of need, mind the well-being of each other’s ever-roaming children and increasingly-dependent elderly, and feel fed by their clearly essential contribution to the group that securely holds them.”