She was on to something. I've had more love and kindness shown to me from complete strangers than my entire family combined, who live to spite me. I keep telling my mom that people are generally good, it's what's got us living in the modern age, it's just that capitalism keeps the good people from sticking together.
Kropotkin had a section about this in mutual aid. Units of people have been broken down into smaller and smaller chunks over time by the more powerful. Sometimes intentional, sometimes not. Your call if you want to read into that.