I think I've mentioned a couple of times (way back) how much I've been enjoying Paul Tournier's stuff. I'm now working on one called Learn to Grow Old, and, as with everything else I've read of his, I'm sorely tempted to quote large amounts of it here were it not for my respect of copyright law. I'll just give you a little paragraph. I don't know precisely when this was written, but it was translated into English in 1971.

Contact between people of different ages used to be possible in the street, because people walked about peacefully on foot. They were able to greet each other, and stop for a chat. An old man would know who the child was he met, and he would chat to him about his parents whom he used to know well when they were little. He would talk of things he remembered, and so the child became aware of a living link between the past and the present. Nowadays the traffic makes it impossible for the old as well as the young to stroll in the street. We cram into buses or the underground, in solid, silent masses, in which the promiscuity of our bodies is equalled only by the solitude of our spirits. The old are not there, adn the children are stifled.