Christmas is set aside as a time of peace and joy, a time of sharing with family, a time of community. Christmas is a good time to talk about community in our society. There are problems celebrating Christmas as a family or as a nation because Rampant individualism is undermining our families and our country. We are losing our sense of togetherness and shared purpose..
Community is not well understood and sociologists have at least 94 discrete definitions to prove it. We do know that it is a lot more than feel-good sharing of “the holiday spirit” or even the sense of accomplishment that comes from a cooperative job well done.
The root meaning of the word explains it better than anything else. The word community comes from two Latin words, cum meaning “with” and munus meaning “gift.” A community is a group that gives the gift together. But this is a special kind of gift. It is the offering that the Roman priests sacrificed to the gods before going to war or before the planting in the spring. The expectation was that those who made the gift accepted together the outcome of the war or the harvest. Everyone shared the spoils of victory or suffered the subjugation of defeat together. Everyone shared the bounty of a good harvest or starved together.
The two communities where we still practice this kind of shared security and togetherness are the nation state and the family. Originally the tribe was the only real community, the place where we prospered or suffered and it was always together. Over time, the nation State rose to assume primary responsibility for the peace that is common security. The peace of individual security devolved from the village to the extended family and finally to the nuclear family. Now we enjoy the benefits of community only in our immediate family and that is what we are supposed to be celebrating at Christmas time.
We have in the US Constitution and in our character a streak of individualism that exists alongside of and competes with the concept of community. In our society the pendulum swings between these two poles. Over the past 30 years individualism has been in the ascendancy and our sense of community has suffered accordingly.
The erosion of family and the community it offers is probably the most important problem that we as a nation face. Yet, our shrill incivility in governing indicates that the country as a whole is losing the sense of a shared political journey.
This Christmas our government is giving us a Christmas present – a healthcare/insurance reform bill. Whether you consider this to be “universal health care at last” or coal in your stocking, we can agree that the political circus of the past several months has exposed some real problems.
The Democrats got a bill but at what cost to us as a community! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "it doesn't speak well" of individual senators who didn't get a special deal for their vote. He was saying, in effect, look out for yourself, “community and nation be damned.” The whole political debacle of the healthcare bill was a parade of individuals determined to profit at the expense of the community. The Republicans were no better in their showy obstructionism.
This is now sadly government-as-usual. Our nation has become a dysfunctional community, one that refuses to pay taxes, to fight or pay for wars, or to assume any of the costs of our national community. We have lost the idea that “we are all in this together,” the essence of community.
The family remains our primary community but it too is becoming dysfunctional as we lose our sense of community. In the present difficult economic times, adult children are moving back in with their parents. If you read the advice columns, parents complaints tell it all. The returning offspring do not want to pay any rent, do the laundry or clean up after themselves. They expect to be able to blow off the responsibilities of living in community.
As we celebrate Christmas and community, let's get over the individualism and start acting like grown-ups. That would be something to celebrate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I don't always agree with your columns but this one was right on target. Having recently read Justice by Michael Sandel, I'm starting to think along communitarian lines. Political discourse nowadays is so damn nasty. Folks seem to be obsessed with taxes and couldn't care less about what's best for the community as a whole. I'm not sure anyone will heed your message but keep on saying it.
Thanks for your comments.
My brother, who has 14 books to his credit, wanted to turn my columns into a book but he complains that he could not find a consistent theme.
I must not have done a very good job because the theme I would like to have through everything is community. This last column grew out of my discussion with him. I expect that I will be more explicit in the future. I am deeply concerned about our lack of community.
Post a Comment