Is it true that welfare states "change people's minds and souls"? A welfare state gives you a stake in caring for your fellow citizens, such as occurs naturally in a small town or tribe. That's not new: it's one way of scaling up human nature. Another is to regard your fellow citizens as members of foreign tribes, and to engage them in never ending political, economic and cultural war. That is the American way, c. 2006.

A third way: form voluntary communities, and leave others alone. Is this possible in an interconnected world? There is stress, at least.