Mass society has displaced real community, where people function together and account for their own lives.

"The people" aren't running anything. That's why technology has replaced politics as the source of ideology. The ideological claims are hollow and absurd, and nobody believes them anymore.

We live in an era with no real sense of community or connection to nature.

Republicans don't want to shrink government. They want more and more military, more and more surveillance. They'd like to have the government banning gay marriage and so forth.

If we once, and for so long, lived in balance with nature and each other, we should be able to do so again.

If you have a problem in mass society, you call the cops. The experts. You no longer have any operative connection with yourself or others, or with a functioning community.

Everyone can feel the nothingness, the void, just beneath the surface of everyday routines and securities.