A Sense of Community

Passing through the kitchen getting Caroline some water, I heard the beginning of an NPR article. It was Dick Meyer, who works for NPR, talking about his new book Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium. Now remember that I only heard the beginning of the article where he was talking about how personal choice in the 1960s over traditional or family choice in combination with the technological revolution of the rest of the century had destroyed our sense of community.

I have to politely disagree. I think that what community was in 1950 and what community is in 2008 are very different but I don't think it is destroyed. If anything it has gotten broader.

In the 1950s the community to which you belonged was rather limited as communication was rather limited. In the 1960 the options for people started opening up. You didn't have to go into your parent's profession. You could get an education and do what interested you. Not that a lot of people didn't go into their parent's profession and were perfectly happy with that choice but they knew it was not their only choice.

We now talk about the global community, which I can't find much reference to before 1960. Our "us vs. them" became more of a "we" as it was realized that this big ball we live on is rather interconnected. This has become even more evident as we continue to learn about the planet that we live on.

Then there are the communities that we can now form because of the Internet. I belong to groups that span the globe. We have members in all different time zones but we have common interests that we enjoy discussing with each other. Then there is my web log community. And I do think of it as a form of community that I belong to.

There are my convention communities. These are conventions that I go to and catch up with people maybe one or twice a year but we have a strong community going at those conventions. We support each other in the good times and bad over the internet when we don't see each other. (Waves at my convention buddies).

Has small town US virtually disappeared? Probably. There are still versions of it out there but now with the various forms of information that can be gotten, these towns no longer live in the isolation that they did in the 1950s. Nor can any country live in isolation anymore really. Some have tried but eventually find themselves turning to the global stage to help them.

I don't think we have lost our sense of community more changed what we consider to be our community.

I am grateful for the various communities that I belong to.