We seem, as Putnam noted, to have devolved into a crowd of individuals, consumed with our own self-interests at the expense of our commitment to community. That is both troubling and problematic. As Putnam and others have pointed out, when we lose our commitment to community, we lose many things that are essential to our success as a nation and to our own happiness in life.
Consider this:
“We have seen all the disorders of men and women torn loose from a context of community and of shared values. Individuals often experience a loss of meaning, a sense of powerlessness. They lose the conviction that they can influence the events of their lives or the life of the community (non-community) in which they live. Some of the consequences are dealt with in the psychiatrist’s office, some in the system of criminal justice. Drugs and alcohol claim their share.” (John W. Gardner, On Leadership, p.113)
The United States has one of the largest incarceration rates (some studies say the largest) of any other country. Add to that disturbing reality the fact that an estimated 22.7 million Americans (8.6 percent) needed treatment for a problem related to drugs or alcohol in 2013 and that figures for those suffering from depression (6.7%) and anxiety (18.1%) in the United States are high and we have an alarming state of affairs.
Now Consider This:
Craig and Mark Keilburger’s document in their book Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World that when researchers Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan conducted a series of studies on goal setting, they found that participants who held goals and values related to financial striving were less happy than participants who had goals and values related to relationships, community and self-acceptance and personal growth. And that was true even if the first group’s financial goals were realized (Me to We, p.188)
This should be enough to concern us about our weakening connections in communities and encourage us to revitalize those connections with communities. There are other compelling reasons for us to revive our personal commitment to community. The social relationships developed in communities:
- Make problem solving easier by increasing trust and decreasing opposition among community members
- Make business transactions easier due to the increased connection and confidence among members of the community
- Moderate we—they barriers even among people who may disagree politically, religiously or in other matters of life
- Encourage empathy
- Reduce the sense of isolation and powerlessness
- Help us balance independence with interdependence
- Make principled leadership possible because, as John W. Gardner points out, “if leaders cannot find in their constituencies any base of shared values, principled leadership become impossible (On Leadership, p.113)
An Opportunity and a Risk
We are living in a period of unrest and divisiveness that has prompted people to become more politically involved. Where once many of us were content to go out and vote and then rush back to our busy lives of acquisition and consumption; now more people are getting involved in community political action groups. In those groups we meet with others, some of whom we are connecting with for the first time, to discuss political action, attend rallies and protests, and visit the offices of local political leaders. We are becoming engaged once again in communities—communities of common concern and purpose. In these communities, we are rediscovering our shared values and re-energizing ourselves with those values. And we are demanding that our political leaders respect those shared values as they make policy decisions.
All this is good. But we must keep it going; for sustained community involvement leads to the benefits I mentioned above whereas episodic participation seldom does.
Additionally, there is another risk we must be wary of. Because politics can be very divisive, and currently is, we must be careful that our political action communities don’t turn into exclusive tribes committed to keeping those who do not share our views at bay. We must make the effort to engage with them respectfully, listening to their views and respecting those views even when we disagree. This takes effort, but that effort is worthwhile. For we must never forget that we are part of a larger community—a country—whose survival depends on our ability to recognize and be guided by a framework of shared values and an acknowledged common purpose for our nation’s future.
If we look at the array of societies described by historians and anthropologists, we cannot find an instance of a healthy society in which humans have not devised a framework of values, norms of conduct, a moral order. When the community’s broad consensus disintegrates, or loses its force, the society sickens. People no longer find meaning in their lives. Nothing holds together. John. W. Gardner