But there are also examples of the church working together to accomplish its task. I don't see a way a case can be made for either from this passage. Large-Sparse is a country that is nearly square in shape, measuring more than 1000 miles on each side. Much of the population is clustered in small, widely spaced apart villages. The remainder is on farms that are widely separated.
Newspapers are available to only a small percentage of the people.
Mail service is infrequent, but most have radios. Small-Dense is also a country that is nearly square in shape, but it measures only 100 miles on each side. Most of the people live high above the asphalt jungle, barricaded behind the doors of their apartments. Once a day they dash outside and rush across town to places of employment, isolating themselves emotionally from those huddled against them on the subways. Then, barricaded again in their apartments, they are isolated except for their television sets, their radios, their newspapers, and their Internet-connected computers.