Tribalism never prospers, for when it does, everyone will respect it as a true nationalism, and no-one will dare call it tribalism. - Ernest Gellner

Civil Society is a cluster of institutions and associations strong enough to prevent tyranny, but which are, none the less, entered and left freely, rather than imposed by birth or sustained by awesome ritual. You can join the Labour Party without slaughtering a sheep ...

This is indeed one of the most important general traits of a modern society: cultural homogeneity, the capacity for context-free communication, the standardization of expression and comprehension.

America was born modern; it did not have to achieve modernity, nor did it have modernity thrust upon it.