When society tries to solve cultural problems through legislation and regulation rather than through evolving culture itself, it produces higher levels of anxiety, deeper divisions, and fails to address the fundamental question of how to cultivate patient and respectful dialogue.

Economics detached from a robust, resourceful picture of human well-being is very dangerous, and modern society treats unlimited material growth as self-evidently the best thing we can hope for, when the real task is rethinking what growth means and why some kinds of growth are privileged over the growth of human understanding.