Still and all, why bother? Here’s my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.

A human being needs an extended family as much as he or she needs vitamins and essential minerals . . . But practically no Americans have extended families anymore, with the exception of the Bushes and the Navajos. When a husband and a wife fight, they think it’s about money or how to raise kids or whatever. But what they’re actually saying to each other is, ‘You are not enough people.’

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.