We act like the rats

Oh, Edward T. Hall, if only you had not been quite so accurate and thorough in your account of rat societies disintegrating under the hormonal stresses of population density!

If you had not, I would not see stories like this one - about the dramatic increase in familicide (that's when good ol' dad comes home, axe murders the whole family, and commits suicide as a response to a desperate financial situation) - and know that this is caused not by the emotional stress of hard times (because hard times are the best times) but due to the disappearance of the barriers between us and others. An undermining of our isolation in these overpopulated cities and suburbs, and the opening of ourselves to the reality of our dependence on one another.

What could be worse?