Common ethics, philosophies, and virtues can create the strongest of often unspoken bonds. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:
There is a kinship between productive human beings; one that spreads all across this planet. It may be invisible to power and hierarchy, but we productive people recognize it.
When we drive into a new town, we know, almost by instinct, that we can trust the hard-working carpenter further than someone permanently on the dole. It’s possible that the guy on the dole is a saint, but the hardworking man shares our specific ethics, and we are tuned to them. And even if this carpenter is a negative exception, we’ll be able to tell soon enough.
I’ve felt this kinship on multiple continents and among people of many flavors; not just on construction sites, but in truck stops, offices, grocery stores and trains. Productive people bear a specific ethic, and it’s consistent not only over distance, but over time. If you were somehow dropped into ancient Rome, the people you’d want to join wouldn’t be the Senators or the people in bread lines, but the people who build and maintain the aqueducts.
Even an old man, recounting his days of building, repairing and creating is not just saying, “I was once strong.” He’s saying, “I am a producer, and even if I’m too old to work, I remain what I was.”
