The effort to build the social fabric required to support the commons is a major, long-term undertaking. It begins with seeing clearly the nature of the modern epidemic of isolation, and then constructs ways of reversing it. It means we have to shift the thinking, narratives and practices that are producing this isolation. A major part of this arises from certain specific disciplines which hold a set of beliefs about: our economy, our faith, our architecture, our relationship to art, and the place of journalism in our lives. The modern, dominant narrative in each of these disciplines is what dilutes our social fabric and sustains our isolation and consequently much of the suffering in the world.