And of course my comment goes directly to the micro level which both was the near universal selective environment for most of human evolution and today is becoming increasingly rare. Even the historical mega cultures that Harari discusses were made up primarily of the micro cultures that would have been recognizable to a hunter/gatherer society; the small, life long and bonded social groups who shared a way of life and a way to explain, transmit and preserve that way. The advent of easy travel has broken these groups, probably irreparably.

I remember my grandmother’s story of getting dressed up as a girl in her Sunday best and riding in the wagon for an hour or so to a road where they watched the first automobile that anyone had ever seen drive by. That was a little more than a century ago and at that time the majority of Americans never traveled more than about 40 miles from the place of their birth. During her childhood anonymity was a far more rare human experience. Strangers could come to town and they were recognized as strangers, a majority of Americans lived in small towns and farm communities, and only in the growing cities could the socially unmoored and anonymous individual do well.