A Sense of Community
Aug. 5th, 2008 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:02 pm (UTC)I am from small town America, and yes, there was tight knit "community." But if you didn't fit in to the strict hierarchy established by it then you were ostracized. 50 years ago, that often meant that you had no other options. Now, people leave or find communities online or, at the least, have access to communications that let them recognize that they are not alone. It's amaziningly empowering.
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Date: 2008-08-05 02:28 pm (UTC)I live in a village on a street that pretty much I have met everyone who lived in within a two block radius. So I know who my neighbors are. I also know that they find what Peter does for a living rather strange (it is a lot of ex military and blue collar folk) but I think they are more understanding now than they would have been 60 years ago.
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Date: 2008-08-05 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-08-05 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-08-07 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:31 pm (UTC)How are you doing? I have been thinking about you and the boys.
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Date: 2008-08-05 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:36 pm (UTC)Even though sometimes I feel it is a curse (I've never lived anywhere for long periods of time to set down roots), it's is also a blessing and I am glad to have made friends and connections everywhere.
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Date: 2008-08-05 03:16 pm (UTC)We don't stay within shouting distance of where we were born. We have the option to move and set up somewhere else more so than every before.
I think that changed in the 1920s in America during the depression where people went where they could find work which was not necessarily where they grew up. Then with the world war and the GI bill, options to change where you lived became something you did because you wanted to rather than something you had to do for the survival of you and your family.
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Date: 2008-08-05 02:40 pm (UTC)Things I love about my town are due to its small town nature. Things I hate about my town are due to the same thing. :-) (Do you know how boring the ballot is during primary elections when you're a mugwump or democrat in this town? Heh.)
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Date: 2008-08-05 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:41 pm (UTC)I whole heartedly agree with you and a lot of things the others have stated as well.
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Date: 2008-08-05 03:18 pm (UTC)I was just struck on how wrong I thought his statement was. Having read the interview and about the book, I think I am going to read a copy of it but I can't say that I agree with it.
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Date: 2008-08-05 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 03:18 pm (UTC)It's a big change from the crowded anonymity of the metro-New York area.
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Date: 2008-08-05 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 03:56 pm (UTC)i suppose it is weird how I take my kids to the playground and all of the parents keep to themselves and don't really interact. I have occasionally had other mothers approach me, and upon realizing that I did not subscribe to their religion (they always open with "what church do you attend?") generally don't talk to me. It would be cool to have more of the parents I know be nearer to us.
But, yeah - convention communities? Rock! And I love it when we do get to see our international friends. I guess, though, that there is this sense that one is supposed to be friends with the neighbors and know everyone on the block, and that is just not how I am wired, because the only way I have ever known how to make friends outside of school, work or conventions is online.
And I am grateful to know you and to be able to see you a few times a year while the kids play, and to be able to keep up with you online in-between. :)
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Date: 2008-08-05 06:38 pm (UTC)I LOVE him.
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Date: 2008-08-05 05:11 pm (UTC)But does anyone really care what these people living in "Fake Time" think?*G*
***
I wouldn't have my one of my best friends if it wasn't for the internet, so - right there with you.
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Date: 2008-08-05 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 06:37 pm (UTC)