Living in Los Angeles, people see two versions of America every day: one made up of shop owners who open on time and follow the rules, and another made up of people who break the law in public and disappear as if nothing happened. The column says this divide has too often been framed as a fight between conservatives and liberals, or Democrats and Republicans, but that the real problem is the loss of a broader social vision.
It argues that years of increasing individualism have weakened community, including online spaces that now mainly gather like-minded people and reinforce what they already believe. The piece describes that fragmentation as the result of choices made over decades — a society that has grown tired of dealing with people and uncomfortable with community.
In that setting, the column says the rise of artificial intelligence is not an accident but an inevitability. It suggests that AI may not be the end of community, but a tool that could make direct democracy possible by allowing individuals to use personal AI systems to process issues and express their views more frequently, rather than only through elected representatives every four years.
The column concludes that money is the last remaining bond in an increasingly individualized society, though not in the old sense of money alone. It says that when people no longer want to hire others or even ask neighbors for help, AI and money become the forces left to connect people.
