Building resilience in the Saugeen Region.
Community...why bother?
The Oxford dictionary defines community as, “a group of interdependents growing or living together, or occupying a specified habitat". Webster adds, “joint ownership or participation”. The idea here is not only a mutually beneficial arrangement of a group of people, but one where each contributes and no man or woman is an island.
Sounds good, but what motivates us to desire community, if indeed we do? Evidently some don’t. For some there is no interest in contributing to or receiving the benefit of a strong, caring community. They would not be missed if they packed up and moved elsewhere. For the rest of us, why do we bother looking out for anyone other than ourselves? What motivates us to take responsibility for the wellbeing of our neighbours, colleagues, family and friends?
There are generally two streams of thought on this.
Some people would say that we build community out of something called “enlightened self-interest”. Enlightened self-interest is the idea that one can serve one’s own wants and needs without impinging on the wants and needs of others. It also says that the ultimate motivation for contributing to a community is the promise of what one will get back personally.
Over recent years, I’ve come to believe that there is really no such thing as truly enlightened self-interest. As humans we all naturally struggle to provide for our basic needs; food, shelter, warmth, etc. Most of us also desire a great many other things as well. The fact that we may obtain them without harming anyone else doesn’t demonstrate any particular enlightenment. It’s still just plain self-interest. To suggest otherwise is to suggest that it need not cost me anything to be a responsible member of a community. This, of course, is nonsense. Any good parent gives a great deal in raising their children, and any marriage worth its salt involves daily sacrifices that may, or may not, see reciprocation. We tend to exercise less self-sacrifice as we move outward in our network of relationships, but the general principle can apply to sacrifice for one’s country, or even the world.
“Enlightened self-interest” quickly loses its enlightenment when one’s relationships only become useful for what can be gained personally. I think almost everyone has had a “friend” that quickly vanished when the favours dried up. Anyone who works in retail or service knows how nasty some people can turn when they don’t get what they want. And I would suggest that many marriages fail because one partner no longer feels he or she is getting the deal he or she signed up for, not understanding that the deal was one of self sacrifice through thick and thin.
The other stream of thought is that we put others before ourselves because it’s just the right thing to do; it’s what we’re made for; it’s somehow buried deep in our nature, and struggling against all of the self-centred motivations that beg our attention. All notions of “enlightened self-interest” quickly vanish in times of tragedy, whether local or global. The outpouring of love and support from the community has no strings attached, and no expectation of reward. Friends, family and even many strangers make themselves available to support the grieving in any way possible, even if all that can be offered is a prayer.
Christians call this concept “agape”, which means unconditional love of others. As a Christian myself, my example is Christ, who gave up his life for humanity and the rest of creation. In his words, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
So why all this waxing philosophical and theological on a blog about re-localization? Because the chief goal of political/social processes is the creation and maintenance of functional community. Although all of us are imperfect, only a moving away from self-interest on the part of citizens will move us toward realizing the highest potential for the people of this region, this country, and this planet.
True community starts with each one of us.
Sounds good, but what motivates us to desire community, if indeed we do? Evidently some don’t. For some there is no interest in contributing to or receiving the benefit of a strong, caring community. They would not be missed if they packed up and moved elsewhere. For the rest of us, why do we bother looking out for anyone other than ourselves? What motivates us to take responsibility for the wellbeing of our neighbours, colleagues, family and friends?
There are generally two streams of thought on this.
Some people would say that we build community out of something called “enlightened self-interest”. Enlightened self-interest is the idea that one can serve one’s own wants and needs without impinging on the wants and needs of others. It also says that the ultimate motivation for contributing to a community is the promise of what one will get back personally.
Over recent years, I’ve come to believe that there is really no such thing as truly enlightened self-interest. As humans we all naturally struggle to provide for our basic needs; food, shelter, warmth, etc. Most of us also desire a great many other things as well. The fact that we may obtain them without harming anyone else doesn’t demonstrate any particular enlightenment. It’s still just plain self-interest. To suggest otherwise is to suggest that it need not cost me anything to be a responsible member of a community. This, of course, is nonsense. Any good parent gives a great deal in raising their children, and any marriage worth its salt involves daily sacrifices that may, or may not, see reciprocation. We tend to exercise less self-sacrifice as we move outward in our network of relationships, but the general principle can apply to sacrifice for one’s country, or even the world.
“Enlightened self-interest” quickly loses its enlightenment when one’s relationships only become useful for what can be gained personally. I think almost everyone has had a “friend” that quickly vanished when the favours dried up. Anyone who works in retail or service knows how nasty some people can turn when they don’t get what they want. And I would suggest that many marriages fail because one partner no longer feels he or she is getting the deal he or she signed up for, not understanding that the deal was one of self sacrifice through thick and thin.
The other stream of thought is that we put others before ourselves because it’s just the right thing to do; it’s what we’re made for; it’s somehow buried deep in our nature, and struggling against all of the self-centred motivations that beg our attention. All notions of “enlightened self-interest” quickly vanish in times of tragedy, whether local or global. The outpouring of love and support from the community has no strings attached, and no expectation of reward. Friends, family and even many strangers make themselves available to support the grieving in any way possible, even if all that can be offered is a prayer.
Christians call this concept “agape”, which means unconditional love of others. As a Christian myself, my example is Christ, who gave up his life for humanity and the rest of creation. In his words, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
So why all this waxing philosophical and theological on a blog about re-localization? Because the chief goal of political/social processes is the creation and maintenance of functional community. Although all of us are imperfect, only a moving away from self-interest on the part of citizens will move us toward realizing the highest potential for the people of this region, this country, and this planet.
True community starts with each one of us.
Originally published January 2007.
Tags: community
Add a Comment
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Comment by William Cook on February 17, 2010 at 10:37am - A very good post. A functioning community(in my opinion) can only exist if the needs of the one(individual) are equal to or exceed the many(collective). Many of the roadblocks to revitializing our communities comes from Laws/Rules to protect the collective. (food safety)(Environment) But does the local community benefit or Big Corporations? There was a time when we had threshing bees (neighbours helping neighbours) because we had a vested interest (our own survival) and we socialized with our neighbours because distances limited our choices. Can we go back? No but we can learn from history and move forward. Our own actions as individuals eg Buy local or Walmart is one example.
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