Community Blog

Today I’m going to lecture you on communities and this is why you are going to give a shit. 

I’m just kidding. I’m not going to lecture you. But you will end up giving a shit by the end though.

In the words of John Donne, “No man is an island entire of itself.” It is a great paradox to believe that we are the center of our own universes, but rely wholly on the “kindness of others,” as Tennessee Williams would put it. To better understand ourselves and how to better ourselves, we must first recognize our role in the community and how we can better our communities for ourselves. Ourselves, not our self.

So this is where we must start.

But before we get into the weeds of how we will cut through the dense thicket of thought on community development, I need to tell you a story.

You are a member of Community B. In this community, there is a highly regimented structure, with sleekness and efficiency in every department and walk of life. There is incredibly strong leadership, a military capable of suppressing opposing thought, and a sense of unity amongst the people. A common flag unites all the people against invaders and enemies and a profound sense of national pride flows through the very veins of the contributors to society. However, there is a catch. Your country is committing the worst atrocity the world has ever seen.

The grotesque murder of 6 million Jews…

Though yes, there is a tremendous amount of order and effectiveness in this community, the severe, complete, and utterly deplorable lack of any sense of moral compassing present within 1940’s Nazi Germany completely shatters the entire case for it being deemed a “healthy community.”

It goes deeper than just efficiency and solidarity in thought.

Here it is: A community, for it to be healthy, must possess the fragile crystalline spine of morality bereft of inclusions, while also boned with the marrow of fluid efficiency, structure and organization. Once these are obtained and maintained, the rest of the body of community can be built.

 Every so often in the happenings of human events, there come pressing forces that weigh on the body of community. Sometimes, these forces are enough to crack and potentially shatter the glass spine of morality in the community.

I am going to tell you another story.

You wake up. You do your morning exercises, all the while being constantly surveilled through the television. You go to work, your superiors are always watching your every move. Later on, you go into a large auditorium where a propaganda video is played, all the while being surrounded by hundreds of peers who all think alike. Down with the enemy! Hail to Big Brother! You go on with your day and can’t help but notice that many people who have not conformed to the accepted practices or ways of thought tend to disappear. You see some of these men brutally beaten on the streets without remorse, only to ultimately never be seen again. You live according to a strict schedule and requirements by the state with little freedom of thought. In fact, you are required to adhere to a strict policy of doublethink. This entails self-correcting any thoughts that may enter your mind contrary to the goals and success of the state.

This is the reality that George Orwell painted in his game-changing novel, 1984.

Not exactly a feel good book. In fact, it was originally written to scare the citizens of Great Britain into reversing the course that their country was heading. This is a dystopian novel. This is meant to be the quintessential example of too much government intervention. Too much government censorship of information. Too much government control. Novels like 1984, Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and The Giver all paint pictures of what it means for a community to be unhealthy.

Yes, there is structure. No, there is no freedom.

If you were to disobey the government, you would be reconditioned into changing your entire belief system entirely. Here lies an important point.

How well the morality of the citizens align with the functionings of the state is a litmus test for how well that crystalline spine is holding up.

How well the morality of the “good man” matches with the requirement the state has for “excellent citizens,” writes Aristotle, is indicative of how well that society is doing (http://files.libertyfund.org/files/819/0033-02_Bk_SM.pdf).

Obviously you, as a moral person in 1984, have a morality that is in clash with that of the state. You think that it is wrong for people to be beaten senselessly for trivial offenses. Instead, if you lived in a state that incentivized charity giving, community service, political engagement, and free thought, that would be indicative of a healthy community.

Orwell and Aristotle weren’t the only ones to see these issues though.

Picture yourself in a nation the size of Rhode Island. You are apart of the radical left, liberal, socialist wing of thought. In the North there are the fascists. In the East are the radical, extremist conservatives. And in the south are the anarchists. You are heavily influenced by the political propaganda the leaders of your party put out. You begin to see some of your childhood friends who have gone to other areas of your nation as “others” or even “demons.” A war soon breaks out amongst all 4 factions.

Alexander Hamilton wrote about this a few hundred years ago in Federalist No. 10 (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/c/1787%20Federalist%20No%2010.pdf).

Basically what Hamilton was saying was that the more groups of thought there are, the more likely shit will hit the ceiling.

Diversity of thought is good. In fact, it is great. But if a society allows it to concentrate itself into the beast of faction, these can quickly devolve into agents of antagonism towards others, agents that obtain freedom from depriving others of theirs.

This is unhealthy. Factions wield the knife of stratification and hierarchy. They cut the divisions of society and leave some at the bottom to fend for themselves (1^st and 2^nd Estates in 18^th Century France). If you disagree with this, I’m sorry. I would agree with you but then we’d both be wrong and we wouldn’t want that now would we?

 

Factions are bad. Factions lead to subaltern groups.

That leads us to our next point.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed, I hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” (https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf)

We all know where that speech came from, not because it’s a super famous speech, but simply because I included the hyperlink above. Yes, that was meant to be a joke, but the point is no laughing matter. The black community fought for hundreds of years to gain equality in the United States. It’s not just them either. Native Americans fought. Afrikaans in South Africa fought. Women fought. Chinese oppressed under Mao Zedong Fought. Ugandans under Idi Amin fought. Jews under Hitler fought. I could go on and on but the point is clear.

There will never be a truly healthy community for anyone if there is a presence of subaltern groups.

The oppressors may have structure, but their morality is lacking. The oppressed may be living morally, but there is not coherent structure in their lives.

You need both to have a healthy community. Subaltern groups deny this possibility.

Often times subaltern groups may lead to feelings of guilt in the oppressors. Imagine an instance in which your benefit depended wholly upon the suffering of another. Would you choose to live in that community or would the feelings of guilt be too much for you to bear?

Lack of guilt in a community can be directly associated with the degree in which that community is violating moral codes.

Sure, early 1940’s Germany was kicking ass. However, they were doing so at the expense of millions of Jews. These feelings of guilt still carry over to today. My sister took a trip to Germany and she said to this day that Germans feel horrible for what they did just a mere 70-80 years ago. Swastikas are nowhere to be found and whenever the concept of the Holocaust came up in conversation with the people there, their eyes immediately turn to the floor.  

In the 1940’s, they had no guilt. They also were violating almost every moral code in the book.

In the 21^st century, Germany is plagued with guilt for what they did. Germany has one of the highest standards of living, GDP Per Capita rates, and lowest income disparities in the entire world. I would call this a healthy community.

Guilt keeps people accountable. The people of Germany work hard, but not only in the economic sense. They work hard to make sure the oppressed have a voice and what is more, that they listen to this voice. This allows them to have structure in their community while also abiding by moral codes in the process.

All this is relevant to the prosperity of the society. What about its initial existence?

The very basis of a community is founded on the physical. That means we can’t have a good community without the community as a start.

Imagine living in a society underwater without any kind of breathing apparatuses. Imagine living in a society with no water and no food and pollution everywhere. For me, it is much easier to picture dying there as opposed to living.

Stephanie Kaza believes in a Buddhist approach to living in harmony with the surrounding environment. She depicts the “Jewel Net of Indra” in which thousands of jewels are constantly reflecting the rays from the others.

We are all interconnected and it is a shame to think otherwise.

In Africa, the concept of Ubuntu rings a similar bell. I will help my fellow citizens because they are me and helping them helps me. It is a highly collective approach to living. It also ensures that we are not taking advantage of our environment or acting uncourteously.

All this is to say one thing. A healthy community depends on two things: How well it meets standards of morality and how well it functions structurally. Finding this balance is the challenge that all states have to face.