The costs of strangerhood's benefits

God is the authoritative counterparty to the civil society. The laws of God temper the rulers and impose on them the self-restraint they need to rule wisely. A democratic political/economy that functions without divine law could try for balance between the ruling classes and the ruled classes. What is more difficult would be for that balance to be achieved with the sort of love and affection that passes between comrades. Without God, people become strangers to each other. All the benefits of strangerhood – mobility, trade, contracts and voluntary transaction, etc. – come at the price of alienation and anomie and addiction.