These have never been qualities that carried us far beyond family, tribe, community or nation. History abounds in examples of misplaced trust. Balancing good sense and some hard-headed sophistication with that necessary naivete regarding the generous intentions of others is no easy task, but it's one democracy ultimately depends on. But contemporary life is peculiarly bad at such relationship-building at any and all levels. Many of us don't even have the same family for a lifetime.
Jobs are no longer even advertised as offering security.
The long-standing role of unions in protecting job security is seen, like job tenure arrangements, as counterproductive, inefficient, and possibly un American. No wonder we face a crisis of relationships. We're fast losing all the places where we might learn to build relationships, create bonds. We know that human beings can better weather change if in their early lives they have experienced strong and abiding ties, a deep sense of security. But these new facts of life erode such early ties.