The Long Earth is bountiful but not forgiving.
A citizen of the Roman Empire, for example, would have placed less value on individual liberty in the modern Western sense than on collective responsibility.
We do teach our kids the golden rule - Do as you would be done by.
In the Vortex that lies beyond time and space tumbled a police box that was not a police box.
When you get close enough to someone you're never really alone again.
We seem to be young, in a very old Galaxy. We're like kids tiptoeing through a ruined mansion.