| One reason people don't get along is because we have different interests at different times in our lives. If we put evil intents aside for a minute, think of the different interests each of us has at different ages and under different situations. The average 21 year-old kid isn't going to care much about social security reform or mortgage rates, but s/he'd care much about student loan rates and availability. Similarly, we may be staunchly anti-abortion but reconsider that position if our 15 year-old daughter gets pregnant.
The more people in a given population, the more varied the interests and the more turbulent the fight for a happy or unhappy medium. This is why successful communes must necessarily remain small - it's harder and harder to get a greater number of people to agree on a majority of issues. |