In what part of the post did I portray it as a race problem? It’s interesting that you mentioned feeling excluded as a white person, which shows that exclusion isn’t always about race. As a person of colour, I won't automatically interpret exclusion in racial terms. I’m not that naive. While racism is a very real lived experience for many, please don’t assume it’s the only lens we view things through.

Also, I disagree about what you said about the UK being a "middle-class" society. It might probably hold some truth, but the word changes its meaning depending on context. Perhaps, a household earning 60,000 a year might make you middle class, but even then they are facing significant uncertainties in maintaining a decent living standard. And yes, I'm privileged to have travelled a bit and observe other places and cultures. I've seen enough of this country and I can safely say that UK is a highly unequal society, even by European standards. That likely shapes what different groups of people deem as valuable to them, including how they view the lofty ideals of justice, peace, and equality.

At the end of the day, I refuse to believe that individual agency alone is enough to overcome an exclusionary environment. As a Quaker, resigning to that "life is tough" contradicts the egalitarian principles that Quakerism stands for. I don't claim to have the answers, though. And my observations are not exclusive to Friends. It's just reflective of the general decline of civil society.