I’ve been wondering the same thing as Thomas Lifson, at the American Thinker. “Why the Japanese Aren’t Looting.” Why do different peoples react to natural disasters in such dramatically different ways? Might it have to do with the nature and strength of their social systems?

Lifson’s article reminded me of a book I read several years ago, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead’s “The Divorce Culture”.   The author contends that divorce, and the dismissal of the traditional nuclear family, are fraying the very fabric of American society. Her book concludes with this sentence:

“Our civil and religious traditions offer a vision of the obligated self, voluntarily bound to a set of roles, duties and responsibilities, and of a nation where sacrifice for the next generation guides adult ambitions and purposes and where wholeness of self is found in service and commitment to others.”

You can tell that “The Divorce Culture” was published over 13 years ago. That quote seems to be describing  2011 Japan  – not America.