Is Friendship in Decline?

For more than two millennia, friendship has been lauded as a key to personal fulfillment. Many of the most memorable works of western literature celebrate friendship.  Achilles and Patroclus, David and Jonathan, and Damon and Pythias are only a few of the famous literary depictions of intimate friendship. Many today fear that a hyper-individualistic, highly mobile society has undermined the capacity for …