The loss of community in modern America

[thujone]

Reading an essay written by an architect about the loss of community in America (link) and this paragraph really stood out to me:

Chronological connectivity lends meaning and dignity to our little lives. It charges the present with a vivid validation of our own aliveness. It puts us in touch with the ages and with the eternities, suggesting that we are part of a larger and more significant organism. It even suggests that the larger organism we are part of cares about us, and that, in turn, we should respect ourselves and our fellow creatures and all those who will follow us in time, as those preceding us respected those who followed them. In short, chronological connectivity puts us in touch with the holy. It is at once humbling and exhilarating. I say this as someone who has never followed any formal religious practice. Connection with the past and the future is a pathway that charms us in the direction of sanity and grace.

He goes on to state: They [modern buildings] are expected to fall apart in less than fifty years. Since these things are not expected to speak to any era but our own, we seem unwilling to put money or effort into their embellishment.

The article is nearing two decades old but whenever I head to the suburbs it's obvious how this mode of life is still perpetuating. I have to agree with the assessment that a lot of the issues in modern America can be linked to the popularity of suburban sprawl; bedroom communities to which the people drive after work to get away from one another and live their private lives. What do you think, has our disconnection with local neighbourhood eroded our values and created a sense of apathy toward each other and the communities that are supposed to bind us?

 

[rm-rf]

ive personally been blaming facebook

that and the massive murder machine we all support in the USA called the military industrial complex :-/

political correctness has also done irreparable damage to our society. i believe it is intentional, to cause social schisms, encourage irrational behavior, and encourage lack of emotional control (and disfavor logical reason). tolerance allows everyone to hate, fear, and judge, and hide it underneath a nice suit and tie. empathy, a condition political correctness disallows, encourages logical reason and emotional control, which are behavioral traits not conducive to obedience.

also, the 500 video games that come out every year focused around corporate security, nationalism and colonialism, and anything involving the ever present threat of "terrorism". what americans believe to be their entitled entertainment commodities, are nothing more than a propaganda tool for marching off to the murder machine. you think youre watching HBO, and youre really being conditioned to favor political agendas that are strongly disadvantageous to you.

essentially, infinite profits have replaced a sense of community and belonging to this earth. and facebook.

 

[panic in paradise]

i feel the separation of community creates more minorities whom feel the most vulnerable, and believe they have the smallest voice to make change for themselves.

 

[Comrade Kane]

It's called individualism and it's a tenet of capitalist libertarian control because it's easier to control divided individuals than a cooperating whole who demand things like rights at work.

The people who think its tolerance of other to blame have been conditioned to believe that by the very forces that they deride, don't worry they've got propaganda for all of you.

 

[spacejunk]

^ i agree. individuals consume more than communities need to. neoconservative ideologies don't see any use for community, it's less profitable for people to share things (public space, public funds, public infrastructure) than it is for everybody to be in it for themselves.
it is a belief system that america has exported globally - a fucking disease, if you ask me.

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

ive personally been blaming facebook

that and the massive murder machine we all support in the USA called the military industrial complex :-/

political correctness has also done irreparable damage to our society. i believe it is intentional, to cause social schisms, encourage irrational behavior, and encourage lack of emotional control (and disfavor logical reason). tolerance allows everyone to hate, fear, and judge, and hide it underneath a nice suit and tie. empathy, a condition political correctness disallows, encourages logical reason and emotional control, which are behavioral traits not conducive to obedience.

also, the 500 video games that come out every year focused around corporate security, nationalism and colonialism, and anything involving the ever present threat of "terrorism". what americans believe to be their entitled entertainment commodities, are nothing more than a propaganda tool for marching off to the murder machine. you think youre watching HBO, and youre really being conditioned to favor political agendas that are strongly disadvantageous to you.

essentially, infinite profits have replaced a sense of community and belonging to this earth. and facebook.

Don't forget suburbanization. I'm getting my master's degree in that topic.

rm-rf, you're right on point, however.

 

[P A]

empathy, a condition political correctness disallows, encourages logical reason and emotional control, which are behavioral traits not conducive to obedience.

This, in spades. But more on topic:

an essay written by an architect about the loss of community in America

After reading the essay, I got the impression that this monograph has much more to do with the cultural impact and implications of McArchitecture in post-WWII America, not the erosion of quaint communitarian social mores.

If I were able, I'd like to bring to the author's attention that he is veering dangerously into the backwards ideological territory of 'Golden Age thinking.' To think that the cruel inequity and shocking brutality of pre-WWII America can be retrospectively absolved by some obscure architect (or journalist?) writing for the Atlantic makes my skin crawl. Do words like 'Jim Crow' or 'The Jungle' come to mind, anyone?

 

[thujone]

good points,

political correctness has also done irreparable damage to our society. i believe it is intentional, to cause social schisms, encourage irrational behavior, and encourage lack of emotional control (and disfavor logical reason). tolerance allows everyone to hate, fear, and judge, and hide it underneath a nice suit and tie. empathy, a condition political correctness disallows, encourages logical reason and emotional control, which are behavioral traits not conducive to obedience.

I feel that too. In foreign cultures characterized by isolationism, the people are on average more polite and hospitable than Americans but are also brutally honest when it comes to speaking about your faults. Perfect strangers will get personally involved in your life because there is a sense of solidarity and camaraderie that is disappearing in America, even amongst the native-born population now that being politically correct has extended from overt respect of immigrants to covert respect of our own people.

Who benefits when people notice each other's faults but are too afraid to speak up? Obesity is one huge problem that could probably be mitigated if Sarah sitting in the office could tell Jane who sits next to her that she's really let herself go without fear of being hauled into HR and reprimanded for stating the fucking obvious. Man, how many times do I feel like losing my shit at the person in front of me at the grocery store counter just because I see them buying unhealthy, prepackaged garbage resembling food.

In regards to facebook, as much as I loathe facebook, I think the internet at large is at least good for damage control. Mass movements of people for political change have been orchestrated via social media. Even before facebook we had BBS, and still do (BL for example) that creates a virtual community for want of a real one where people can freely discuss the things that interest them, and further arrange to strengthen the bonds of that community by organizing real meets. Despite the sin of suburbanization having complete dominion over the GTA where I live, I'm still part of BBS communities that revolve around bringing real people together to further discuss our interests or just unwind and shoot the shit like good neighbours might.

I think what really amazes me is that despite the huge faults of the urban planners that have lead us to this deeply poisoned state of society, there is hope for the future within the internet. What is the internet but devices communicating, behind which people are communicating? Despite physical barriers like distance or age or wealth we are still bridging huge gaps just to communicate. What really underlines the relationship between internet and community is our trending toward hyperreality. I remember this has been in the pipeline for years so I'm really pumped to be able to actually show a clip of what is coming very, very soon: Google Glasses!

edit: i don't mean to split the focus, this S&T tangent was just food for thought

 

[Changed]

Chronological connectivity lends meaning and dignity to our little lives. It charges the present with a vivid validation of our own aliveness. It puts us in touch with the ages and with the eternities, suggesting that we are part of a larger and more significant organism. It even suggests that the larger organism we are part of cares about us, and that, in turn, we should respect ourselves and our fellow creatures and all those who will follow us in time, as those preceding us respected those who followed them. In short, chronological connectivity puts us in touch with the holy. It is at once humbling and exhilarating. I say this as someone who has never followed any formal religious practice. Connection with the past and the future is a pathway that charms us in the direction of sanity and grace.

I'm trying hard to wrap my head around this quote...

He's saying that the past and our knowledge of it intensifies our experience in the present. Amazingly antithetical to the Buddhist tenant of the 'here and now' being everything. Especially interesting: "It puts us in touch with the ages and with the eternities, suggesting that we are part of a larger and more significant organism." Why do we have to look to the past to see that we're part of a larger and more significant organism?! Drive your automobile out of the city, into the country side, park on the side of the field, walk into the forest, and stand there. Look at the trees. Listen to the birds. Take your shoes off and walk around, feeling the pine-needles and moss on your feet. I'd say that is a far superior indication than we're part of a larger organism...

The next line is also difficult to agree with: "It even suggests that the larger organism we are part of cares about us, and that, in turn, we should respect ourselves and our fellow creatures and all those who will follow us in time, as those preceding us respected those who followed them." Do we need to catch up on our Jack London for a reminder that Nature is a cruel place with no special respect for human life and limb? If he's not talking about nature, but instead human-society, how can we say that societies of the past have respected themselves or us? The Holocaust, the destruction of the Earthly environment, the list goes on. Neither human beings nor Nature are looking out for any others.

And the capper: "Connection with the past and the future is a pathway that charms us in the direction of sanity and grace." Ridiculous! Living in the past and a future surely "charms" us with false-visions and unrealistic expectations, but living in the present is the only way to maintain sanity. It isn't a surprise that this guy argues sanity is found in the past and future-- how many people today are facing reality head on today, instead of residing in some virtual-reality simulation? Not many, I'm guessing...

The article is nearing two decades old but whenever I head to the suburbs it's obvious how this mode of life is still perpetuating. I have to agree with the assessment that a lot of the issues in modern America can be linked to the popularity of suburban sprawl; bedroom communities to which the people drive after work to get away from one another and live their private lives. What do you think, has our disconnection with local neighbourhood eroded our values and created a sense of apathy toward each other and the communities that are supposed to bind us?

Now here is something I can agree with. Having grown up in a small town, there was a great sense of community; moving to a large city, there was a great sense of connection, not only among my neighborhood, but with everybody that lived in the city in general. Living car-less, frequenting the same shops, building human connections-- this is what generates value in human lives, not a sense of history or looking to the past or future. Now that I'm crashing in the suburbs, I hardly interact with humans, the people I do talk with a fractionalized, very conservative, closed off, not part of anything larger than their family or co-workers. It is sad really.

I hope some of this made sense.

 

[thujone]

I realized the paragraph alone is taken entirely out of concept but the essay is rather long and goes into other technicalities of zoning, etc. All the same, worth reading the full version, but yeah the paragraph is relating to how we feel as humans to be confronted by our own history. I have to admit that I never lose my sense of awe when visiting Europe and walking around a city surrounded by gigantic feats of engineering that were developed not just with a practical purpose in mind but also to beautify and deliver art and a sense of timelessness to the future generations. I think what the author is saying is that we have more respect for humanity and nature when, instead of dividing the two with outrageous zoning laws, we put an effort into making buildings that foster community and respect the cycles of nature to bring us into better harmony with it. The way we build buildings definitely links us to nature; don't have to look any further than the many types of birds and the unique ways in which they build their nests to realize that other species on the planet also try to build communities out of language and art in ways that they can understand.

Agreed on the next point, now that I'm also a car-less city slicker I realize there is more of a sense of community here. Gentrification is a big word these days, and to me it's a perfect representation of people who grew up in the suburbs, are sick of it and decide to be a part of building and fostering communities in places that seem conducive to it. Johnny Knoxville narrates an awesome little doco (link here) about the downfall of Detroit and it also has a huge focus on gentrification and the effect that all the grand, old art deco buildings Detroit was famous for having an influence on people wanting to come and build beautiful communities around them. One of the kids interviewed in the doco says something like "wanted to be a part of something". Yeah. I can feel it.

 

[Changed]

Yeah, I saw that video a few years ago. Detroit is a good example of a city where people, specifically young people, are coming together to create a culture that is bigger than themselves.

Baltimore, the city I've lived in for three years, is also a city that instills that sense of community in its residents-- probably because living there is a tough, but ultimately very rewarding experience.

back to the topic at hand...

 

[ebola?]

The article is nearing two decades old but whenever I head to the suburbs it's obvious how this mode of life is still perpetuating. I have to agree with the assessment that a lot of the issues in modern America can be linked to the popularity of suburban sprawl; bedroom communities to which the people drive after work to get away from one another and live their private lives. What do you think, has our disconnection with local neighbourhood eroded our values and created a sense of apathy toward each other and the communities that are supposed to bind us?

I think that this thesis is sociologically well justified, but needs additional nuance. Suburbanization cooccurred with maturation of mass-commodity production and consumer society proper. So just as people began to separate from one another geographically, they began to mediate their relations with one another via purchase and consumption, these two processes mutually reinforcing. The rise of ever more demanding work-weeks in professional and service sectors, coupled with the near ubiquity of television, led to a dearth of free time to rebuild relations of community once fractured. In short, civil society has eroded in this transformation. This overall trend has been reflected by a transformation in voluntarist political organizations: people now send money to groups that lobby before elected representatives rather than going out and interacting with other people.

political correctness has also done irreparable damage to our society. i believe it is intentional, to cause social schisms, encourage irrational behavior, and encourage lack of emotional control (and disfavor logical reason). tolerance allows everyone to hate, fear, and judge, and hide it underneath a nice suit and tie. empathy, a condition political correctness disallows, encourages logical reason and emotional control, which are behavioral traits not conducive to obedience.

While political correctness marks a certain cooptation and pacification of identity-political struggle, I don't think that it plays a key role in the processes noted above. The cultural ethos preceding the rise of political correctness, the straight-jacket conformity of the 1950s, was hardly preferable, nor did it lend itself to expression of cooperative freedom in community.

ebola

 

[L2R]

McArchitecture

you took the notion right out of my mouth.

disposable dwellings for disposable lives and their disposable husbands and disposable wives. abundance reduces value, value which is replaced with artificial values, so when focusing on material noise, one forgets about what's most important, each other.

if you want to see community, look outside of the developed sprawl.

 

[trees_please]

you took the notion right out of my mouth.

disposable dwellings for disposable lives and their disposable husbands and disposable wives. abundance reduces value, value which is replaced with artificial values, so when focusing on material noise, one forgets about what's most important, each other.

if you want to see community, look outside of the developed sprawl.

well said. if i were to lend anything to the discussion it would be more or less what you just said; were living disposable lives. a plastic existence without feeling or purpose. i just finished the book Gang leader for a day by Sudhir Venkatesh. That gave me an enormous perspective on community and our worthless lives like i'd never imagined before. it had the power to depress but also impress. well worth a read.

 

[panic in paradise]

you dont see how creating a minority, who feels vulnerable as with anything, will be in fear and more predictable, physically and mentally. the motivation to change is less also, because it is then a normal, this breeds judgement amongst those minorities and further violence and predictable behavior.

with such small minorities who have a few generations of apathy through poverty, voting seems useless.

this was studied seriously for the first time before the civil war, what can i say, witting physical slaves were becoming to wise, so practices such as this were studied and implemented. sociology at the that time showed white people to be the ones to follow the heard more, ask less questions, and need more; so america took a turn and began the assembly line and we became products much the same.

you have to ask yourself, why is it this unreasonable insensible way, and who is this convenient for?

 

[trees_please]

who are you directing your comments towards? are you in fact a minority? i disagree that minorities see voting as useless. i believe they have a lot more ambition to affect change than you think. for some of them, its a voice that has not yet been stifled by the oppressive 1%.

 

[thujone]

lots of great, thought-provoking responses here it's crazy how aware we all are of this situation, and that we all consider it problematic enough to have given it enough thought for us to develop our own unique, yet interrelated outlooks on how it became and how it's being sustained.

all of these elements fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces and point toward contributing to the problem, so finding a solution for it seems like an overwhelming task. i wonder how many generations it will take before we reform, or whether suburban society will outright collapse and become a wasteland before change will start to creep in.