I think it appeals to primitive right wing thinking by limiting your sense of society to tribal proportions (i.e. the sense of common good applies only to me, my family and my friends at the expense/indifference of everyone else).
(, Thu 31 Jan 2013, 17:01, archived)
as promoted by individualistic consumerism. But it wouldn't necessarily stop there. "Tribes" (if you want to use that word) can still form even larger groups, and if tribe membership is dynamic (rather than purely hereditary as it was in the past) there should be plenty of inter-tribe empathy.
(, Thu 31 Jan 2013, 17:12, archived)