Some interesting stuff here. As a rule of thumb folkies care about it but don't live it, the regular folks don't give a stuff but live it out as naturally as they breathe. Part of our need to identify discrete and manageable ideas of folk - and by extension folk music and lore - is the people en masse are such a messy subject and communities in the old sense: fishing, farming provide a much simpler handle on society, even if their lives were as complex as our own.

My impression is the average folky's love of his fellow man is no greater and often less than the norm, unless he's a tidy package with rules of engagement.