The American dream is to get wealthy enough to get a little house, which then might become a big house, and then a mansion. And happiness, it’s at your door. This is a lie of astounding proportion, because what we are really doing is cultivating the notion of hermitage. We are all hermits who try to affirm their own presence, with a persuasion or conviction that we can control our destiny as soon as we can control our little area somewhere on the planet. Within our domain, we do what we like to do. But that’s a delusion really. We are interdependent, so as individuals, we will not survive. There is no animal species that can survive independently.
Paolo Soleri, "GreenSource Interview," 2009