It's a big world, after all

Religious and cultural differences are on the rise | Marvin Olasky

You can bet that some commencement speaker this spring has said or will say in a speech what we're taught in song: "It's a small world, after all." The standard line is that improved travel and communication are showing billions of people that we're all the same.

Actually, the opposite is true: The world remains huge and is getting larger as individuals assert diverse religious views and carve out specialty occupations, avocations, and lifestyles.

The world is expanding because of economic advance. Hundreds of millions of people now are free to plow new furrows rather than work the family farm. Three centuries ago daily economic life for almost all people was similar: Rainfall, wildlife, and the quality of land varied, but farmers in all those places could readily understand what their counterparts were doing. Now, we have thousands of different callings.