Just How Do You Experience Community?

With less than 40 days until the election, politics are in high gear and top of mind for many.  Part of me feels bad for all the people in the 7 battleground states who are undoubtedly being carpet bombed with political ads of all shapes, sizes, and flavors.  We don’t get much of that out here in California, an assuredly Blue State, but I bet it’s an interesting experience.

Anyway, the season has me thinking a lot about our democracy and just what it takes to be an effective citizen at a historical moment like this. Of course, I’ll be voting. I’m also going to keep trying to be a voice of reason here in Profit+. And, where possible, I’m going to encourage compromise and work to serve as a bridge between the divide. I don’t believe in exclusionary or incendiary politics. It doesn’t make sense because it’s ineffective and counterproductive. Our only hope for progress is to overcome these divisions and join together to solve the many complex problems of our modern world. 

For the longest time, I viewed citizenship through the lens of the individual. It was a matter of duty, a sacred individual responsibility. When reflecting on all the obvious failures of civic expression in our society, I gravitated toward explanations in that vein: 

“People just don’t care enough.” 

“We have a virtue problem.” 

“People are increasingly unwilling to accept the responsibilities of citizenship.” 

That kind of thing.

But the more I think about the problem of citizenship, the more I realize that it’s really about community. I came across a fascinating academic paper—yes, I know that sounds like an oxymoron but trust me—written by Sam Pressler that dives deep into the issue of citizenship and explores the ways that government itself can help promote a better, more engaged citizenry. 

This came to me, by the way, from my close friend and former Nick Halaris Show guest, Ana Guerrero. Her episode is worth revisiting at a time like this as she delivers a master class on effective civic engagement and public leadership. 

Anyway, in the paper, Pressler asks a fundamentally important question:

Just what does it mean to experience community?

To answer the question, you have to consider 3 things:

1. Where do you experience community?

2. What are you doing there?

3. And, with whom?

“Community” is another of those great Socratic words, the ones you think you know until you sit down to and try to define it.

Community is more than just a connected group. It’s more than a place, city, suburb, neighborhood, or institution. You cannot just open a fancy new community center and declare victory. Just think of all the dead public spaces you see around the country. 

No, community demands something more than proximity or place; it demands action—and not just any action. Sure, to attend a football game with 100,000 fellow fans is to participate in a community of sorts, but it’s not the same as the one formed by a group of people who gather together to practice religion or to help clean up the neighborhood. When it comes to community, what you do and with whom matters a lot.

With Pressler’s framework in mind, it’s obvious what’s wrong with America:

In most neighborhoods, there are simply not enough physical spaces for communal action. And where they do exist, they aren’t sufficiently activated to be broadly effective. Similarly, there aren’t enough opportunities for meaningful communal action nor enough people engaged to produce the kind of connected society we are after (or at least, should be). 

We are struggling on literally every dimension. 

Now, I generally reject the idea that there was some Golden Age of American civic engagement but things have clearly been better than they are today. This has been well documented, most famously by Robert Putnam in his seminal work “Bowling Alone.” I know I’ve been recommending a lot of books lately but this one is probably worth checking out too. The highlight though is this:  

Since the onset of the cultural revolution of the 1960’s, social capital (i.e. community engagement) has declined in all its forms—religious institutions, volunteer organizations, political parties, fraternal organizations, labor unions…. So much so, that by 2000 when the book came out, it had eroded so much that Putnam was worried about America’s ability to remain a functioning democracy. 

Things have only gotten worse.

Putnam hypothesized two main causes for this precipitous decline in social capital: 1. Economic mobility (i.e. the fact that in America it’s so easy / common for people to relocate for better economic opportunities) and 2. The rise of technologies with individualizing affects, like personal computers connected to the Internet.

Obviously, he was right on both fronts! It’s hard to become a part of a community when you aren’t putting down any roots. And, yes, technology is undoubtedly interfering with genuine connection. You can see this in any coffee shop, restaurant, or bar in America, where even people who are together are on their phones all the time and not really engaging in the real moment. 

So, if our problem is that we have too few opportunities to experience real community, how can we fix that? The challenge here is that there are no easy answers. There’s not even 10 or dozens. Pressler offers over 150 ideas in his paper! Plus, economic mobility is a feature, not a bug, of American dynamism and individualizing technologies are here to stay.

I think the real issue with community is that it’s a byproduct of something rather than something you can pursue per se. In other words, community doesn’t happen because you get together with other people and say, “Hey everyone, let’s form a community!” Rather it emerges naturally when you engage with others in something you love or care about in some meaningful way.

I’m fortunate to be a part of some incredible communities. I have the Reebok Lab, where I’ve become the unofficial Mayor of a band of fitness-obsessed individuals. I’ve got the boys’ school, where I volunteer for all kinds of activities because I just love being around the kids, teachers, and staff and want to model a certain kind of responsibility and engagement for the boys. Then there’s my network of civic activists and concerned citizens. In each case, while I joined these groups for some other purpose—i.e. to stay in shape, to have fun with my kids, or to help the homeless—I ended up becoming a part of something truly special and meaningful. 

Community is the unexpected byproduct of engaging with the world in enlightened ways. It’s the reward for showing up in the world as your authentic self and doing the things that you care about.  And it’s what you get when you start putting into practice the collective wisdom of our great philosophers and spiritual seekers.  

We can all play a role in reversing the trend of declining social capital in America. As you are planning out your schedule for next week ask yourself whether there is a place you can go to do something you love or care about. If there is, you should absolutely go, for on the other side, there is something special waiting.

PS. Why make yourself feel bad reading the news when it’s so easy to feel good?

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