People like James Kunstler say that we are entering an era when small towns will be valued again, and that out of necessity we will reinvent truly social economies using local assets and resources. Should this happen, it would seem inevitable that community values and interaction would be, gradually, to some greater degree at least, restored. Communities where, ideally, each member, based on the self-realized merits of his or her own strengths and weaknesses, has a place, and finds appropriate and meaningful work. Where, with community as a priority, work is generated, barter is encouraged, community members do not have to leave home in such large numbers in order to survive, and the community is, therefore, self-perpetuated and increasingly strengthened, as are its individual offspring whose lives take on meaning from simply being a part of that greater recognizable community that acts as a social and psychological mirror for their acts of generosity as well as bad behavior. Where we are all neighbors, once again, as well as new natives in that place.
Community is, for the most part, a small paradigm.
And small, as far as I can see, is the only way that works.