Kingsolver devoted a significant portion of her speech to dismantling what she called the 'Rule of Escalating Isolation'—the cultural assumption that success means bigger houses, private offices, and less contact with other human beings. She pointed out the paradox: in the last thirty years, America's material wealth had increased while self-described happiness had steadily declined. The happiest people in the world, she noted, were not in the richest or poorest countries but in places like Mexico, Ireland, and Puerto Rico—places identified with extended family, noisy villages, and a lot of dancing. She urged graduates to remember what they had loved most about college life: living in close and continuous contact with others. That ancient social construct, she said, was called a community—and it was their 'native state.'