Evidence of change can always be witnessed in the shared fears of a society. TalkLeft offers up discussion on US Representative James Sensenbrenner's (Rep/Wisconsin) bill to require a national ID system. I believe the bill is reflective of how the world is getting "smaller" and the village getting "larger".
Small is equal to the distance between me and every other person in the world. Between technology, media, curiosity, etc., the distance is pretty short. I am no longer dependent on someone else's story of what is over yonder, but can actually (virtually) be there.
Larger is equal to the number of people that are in my immediate vicinity (whether physically or virtually) that can influence me or other people around me. In the earlier times there were thousands and thousands of villages each containing a few hundred people. That was the only "world" they needed to concern themselves with. Today there are few villages each containing millions of people. That is a lot of change. Maybe more than humanly conceivable.
So people that fear villages getting even larger WILL propose ways to put up fences. In a small town way that seems to have so much appeal. For me (speaking only for my little piece of humankind) it feels degrading, controlling, and reinforcing of prejudicial thinking (they're not one of us).
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