Benjamin, I appreciate your articles and have you as one of the very few authors that show up in my email box.
I'm reading a truly inspiring book about how disasters spark community and the challenge of porting that into everyday life.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6444492-a-paradise-built-in-hell
For my part, I'm trying to work through how we ended up in such a wackadoodle state, politically. Case & Deaton have been exploring what they call 'deaths of despair' for a decade or so. Essentially, the progressive immiseration of the middle of the economic spectrum has hit folks hard and in my opinion this has left folks scrambling for a dignified self-definition and many fail. I realize I write at what most would consider excessive length but the links to the Case & Deaton stuff is about half way down...first chart.
There is a huge personal & cultural component, true, but also a significant economic driver.
Agree on community and the outdoors!
Thanks