The book highlights a disconnect between the "global" ethics of human rights and the "local" ethics of survival and community. Ignatieff warns that ignoring this local moral order can lead to a sense of alienation that fuels populism.

He suggests that morality is most effective at the local scale . People are often willing to practice "ordinary virtues" with their immediate neighbors, even if they hold exclusionary or nationalist views toward outsiders.

Ordinary virtues are what keep societies from collapsing into chaos during times of crisis. They represent a "moral baseline" that functions even when the state fails. Critical Reception