Well, maybe. Part of being a decent neighbor is knowing not just when to intervene but when not to intervene. The word "busybody" has existed since long before the '50s, and it describes a person who oversteps the boundaries of a community's informal social contract. Needless to say, what is busybodyism in one community might be an acceptable intrusion in another. Furthermore, an intrusion that's acceptable from one neighbor might not be acceptable from someone else. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities — the same book where she talked about "eyes on the street" — Jane Jacobs pointed out that in a living neighborhood there are many intermediary zones between the purely public and private spheres: areas of only moderate intimacy, of conviviality without intimacy, of friendly familiarity, and of respectful distance. "Cities are full of people with whom...a certain degree of contact is useful; but you do not want them in your hair," she wrote. "And they do not want you in theirs either."

I do agree about the ill effects of professionalization. A crunchy conservative movement that challenged the dictatorship of the degreed would warm this Pringles-eating libertarian's heart.