A collective dream falling short?

After a long day at work, the commute home can be a nice time of solitude. I'm talking about the isolation you feel in a crowd moving in the same direction, thinking the same things, not speaking, moving in a jumbled unison.

Every time it gets me, and I wonder if this is what I want - if this is all I want...or how could I want anything else? In a world where 1+1 is supposed to add up to more than 2, is our collective dream all we can achieve?