Real communities are places where we know our neighbors, and can count on them for support. This, more than anything else, brings us happiness and health.
Community is a basic human need.
Humans are social animals that evolved to live, work, and play in tight-knit communal groups. When we live this way today, in real communities where our personal connections are numerous and deep, we are at our best.
By the same token, when we live in social environments that isolate us, and make our personal connections shallow and few, we incur all sorts of problems. Community is a basic human need, and it’s time we recognized that.
Community is the opposite of bureaucracy.
In modern societies, people interact mostly through bureaucracies such as school systems and large corporations. It’s life at the lowest common denominator, where people are strangers, names become numbers, and rigid rules prevail.
In communities, by contrast, the human spirit flourishes. People are seen as individuals, and their unique gifts can be cultivated. At this smaller scale, institutions can be flexible, and we can make wise “judgment calls.”
Real community must be intentionally built.
In civilized societies, real community doesn’t just emerge. It must be intentionally built. That starts with the family. That’s why several of the rules of human thriving involve providing people with the resources they need to be good parents.
It extends to the neighborhood. To function well, a family must be part of a group of families, in which mothers get help from other mothers, fathers enjoy the fellowship of other fathers, and kids have plenty of playmates.
It expands to the town/borough/district. At this level we can build real community, through projects that create vibrant public spaces where people come together.
