practically transform their world in basic human terms. We find a good historical translation of this notion of course in the pre-modern Jeffersonian vision that a “Great Society” locates its source of sustenance in those among us who work the earth, thriving on tangible, real labor but also inventiveness, self-sufficiency, a spirit of civic flourishing, but also self-control and historical efficiency. Such a way of life emphasizes our basic interdependence. We learn in the most transparent ways the extent to which others’ actions, goods, and thoughts make possible the lives of everyone in our community. We learn that we cannot but only cooperate with others to develop all the means we need to enjoy a healthy level of personal subsistence. That is, whereas in pre-modern America farmers in the frontier learned to “neighbor” or barter among each other to cope with the rigors of life in an often hostile world and to provide each other goods and services that a non-existent consumer market then could not provide, we can as well learn to make sure that the types of work we do, whatever it is, improves materially and spiritually our own life and the lives of others and our environment itself, for such an ethos demands that we see the aim of work as being for the sake of not only personal subsistence and advancement but also producing a quality product for the enjoyment or profit of another. Such a perspective will help personally tame excessive and unhealthy competitive habits and develop our cooperative tendencies, for they compel one to recognizes that the quality of one‘s life depends on not only on one‘s effort but also on the effort of others. Since such an interdependent life cannot depend on how much credit one can command or how