Community and Freedom 9 – May 21, 2019
This is the 9th – and last – in a series. The first eight parts can be found here – Community and Freedom, Community and Freedom 2, Community and Freedom 3, Community Freedom 4, Community and Freedom 5, Community and Freedom 6, Community and Freedom 7, Community and Freedom 8)
Creating the Future
Good evening,
Last week I highlighted several ancient cultures that provided our ancestors with healthy and fulfilling lives. A few of those cultures have continued into the present day, but most have been broken or disfigured by the forces of colonialism and nationalism, and few modern cultures (with all the blessings they bring) have been able to deliver important benefits ancient peoples enjoyed.
Many solutions have been proposed to improve our modern lot, one of the most frequent being economic – to increase the wealth of the poorest people and sometimes the middle classes as well. While there are many good reasons to work toward this goal, doing so is unlikely to solve most of the problems of modernity. In his book Tribes: On Homecoming and Belonging, Sebastian Junger presents good evidence that modern affluent societies have more depression, anxiety, chronic loneliness, various health disorders, and schizophrenia than any societies in human history. At the same time, many of the problems of modernity did not exist in tribal cultures, such as depression or the other emotional and psychological problems listed above.
Junger’s work also shows that communal crisis tends to diminish the emotional and psychological problems individuals experience; for instance, depression rates drop off sharply. During “the Troubles” in Belfast, suicide rates went down 50%. In London during the WWII air raid years, psychiatrists reported that many patients got better. Homicide and other crime rates went down. In the U.S., Junger studied communities that had had natural disasters – and he did not find panic or the collapse of communities. Often, social bonds were reinforced and people worked together to repair their home areas. Why? During times of crises, emergency, or war people come together and form intense connections. They feel much closer to each other, and thus a greater sense of community and shared purpose. Junger even talked to a number of people who looked back to times of crises with a sense of longing – a feeling that something had been lost when the crises was over and they had returned to their normal lives. (I have read the accounts of many soldiers who looked back on the camaraderie and intensity of war with positive, if painful, nostalgia.)
In the same vein, Oliver Burkeman in his recent book The Antidote documents that “anxiety disorders and depression are far less common in poorer countries,” and studies show that many people in the poorest countries are happier than those in wealthy ones. (I have had this confirmed many times in talking to people all over the world.) In one dramatic example, Burkeman visited one of the poorest slums in the world, Kibera, a very large area on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya (which in one news report was called a “landmark of suffering”).
But when Burkeman went there and stayed long enough to get to know the people in Kibera, he heard a different message. He asked Norbert Aluku, who was born and raised there, “if his childhood was one of misery and suffering.” Norbert laughed in disbelief: “Of course not! Because, at the end of the day, it’s not about your conditions. It’s about taking whatever you have and using it as best you can, together with your neighbours.”
Frankie Oluoch, another resident, said: “Kibera is not a good place. Big problems … major, major problems,” But, he continued, “You have to manage, because you have to. So you take what you have and you get on with it. And you can be happy like that, because happiness comes from your family and other people, and in making something better of yourself, and in new horizons.”
Jean-Pierre Larroque, a documentary filmmaker who spent a lot of time in Kibera, reported his experience there: “Kiberans just don’t seem as unhappy or as depressed as one might have expected. … The streets are bustling with industry. … Kibera feels not so much like a place of despair as a hotbed of entrepreneurialism.”
Another fascinating example that questions economic answers but supports the importance of close connection to a group is the extensive documentation of European immigrants to America who somehow found themselves living with native peoples, and then had a chance to return to their birth cultures. They almost always refused. This was even true for people who had been kidnapped and then integrated into native tribes. And, shockingly for our European immigrant pride, there are few instances in which native people willingly choose to join our culture.
One conclusion these and other studies suggest is that money and material goods will not solve the problems of modernity. There are certainly lots of people in the world who need help with food, shelter, and health care, and we should help them. But as we help, perhaps we should try to learn from them alao, for in many places where there is a struggle with the necessities of life, people feel a connection with each other and a sense of belonging to a community – and they are fairly happy. At the same time, here among the economically advantaged, a lot of us are overwhelmed by the ills of modernity and we long for the connections communities provide.
Propelled by this longing, a significant number of us are joining unhealthy or pseudo-communities. Having been raised to believe that we must take care of ourselves and create our own success, we bounce to the other extreme and join unhealthy communities that promise to meet our needs – giving up our freedom and relinquishing our judgement to groupthink, autocrats, and authoritarian leaders who make empty promises.
Countering this solution, many movements toward healthy community are happening around the world today: existing communities are coming together to solve problems and new communities are forming, even in the most economically challenged places. If you begin to look, you will discover that many people are finding ways to integrate modern life with a deep commitment to community and each other.
New York Times columnist David Brooks has partnered with the Aspen Institute to find and support those all over America who are bringing together groups to solve problems on the local level. The organization is called Weave: The Social Fabric Project, and they have identified and begun to work with thousands of people who are creating and working within communities to “repair our country’s social fabric.” And for several years James and Deborah Fallows visited cities and towns all across America – and in their book, Our Towns, they document the surprisingly effective and hopeful efforts being made in many places to solve local problems. As one reviewer put it, “this book is a tonic for what ails us as a nation, a captivating story of energy and renewal across the land.”
There are, in fact, an amazing number of books and articles highlighting the efforts across America and around the world to solve problems and create and nurture connections between people. Thomas Friedman, another columnist at the Times, has written a series of articles about cities that have formed broad-based local coalitions to work together on solving problems – and many are succeeding. Additionally, there are many organizations focused on speaking to just this need, such as the Community Building Institute based in Knoxville, Tenn., inspired by the work of best-selling author Scott Peck.
At times we seem to be awash, and some would say drowning, in an ever-rising tide of problems. But this perception is partly because the news media focus on what is going wrong. This draws viewers, and we support that perspective when we give them our attention. How, then, do we as a people recover a balance and give more attention to the good things that are happening around us?
The answer is not to look away or deny the many problems. But it is to realize that focusing too much on the magnitude of what is wrong is not helpful; in fact, it is counterproductive to spend a lot of time focusing on all the problems. It is not your task to solve all the problems of the world. You can’t, anyway. No one can fix very much alone, and to believe you are supposed to deal with everything is self-defeating and grandiose. What each of us can do is take the risk of actively caring for those around us and give our time, energy, and money to nurture the communities of which we are a part. Then we can get really involved in one or two worthwhile projects beyond our immediate horizons.
Most importantly, as you think about the problems of the world, don’t get lost in despair; it is a terrible disease, and it leads to inaction. There are many positive things going all around us. Become a part of one of these efforts. Give one of them your energy and attention. Pick a problem and do what you can. Take a lesson from Mother Teresa and realize that your task is not to try to do great things but to do “small things with love.” Small things add up – especially if lots of people are doing them. Do small things every day – smile at people, say a kind word, offer a friendly hand, help the people around you. This will make the community you are part of better, stronger, and healthier. If a lot of us do this, it will change the world.
Someone once said that any problem that can be solved in one lifetime is not a big enough challenge to occupy all one’s time and attention. Some native American tribes say it is important to focus on the effects of actions on the 7thgeneration in the future. To do this is to put your ego demands aside and get in touch with the realization that you are part of a larger pattern. It seems clear that the loss by many of us of connection to a larger pattern accounts for many of the problems in the modern world. If you are not connected to a larger pattern, the only alternative is to believe that you are the center of the universe, that everything revolves around you, and that ever-increasing success is the only way to stave off failure. Since many in modernity have adopted this belief, it is little wonder that depression, anxiety, and despair abound.
Contrary to Nietzsche and his modern followers, there are no good reasons to deny that we are part of a larger pattern. Such a view is neither rational nor supported by science. The modern way of understanding the word reason does not and cannot give the basic framework within which reason itself functions, nor can it provide goals for our lives or tell us what values are important. For most of human history, most everyone assumed that there was a larger pattern, and the function of reason as they used it was to try to understand and connect with this larger pattern. Such was certainly the view of all the great scientists of the early 20thcentury. They understood that science cannot tell us what might or might not lie beyond the material realm, so they each searched for that knowledge by way of deeper intuitions or by undertaking a spiritual exploration. (For more on this, see my book Art, Science, Religion, Spirituality.)
Finally, where does freedom fit into this picture? Ultimate freedom lies in a free choice concerning what you will commit to and the kind of person you will work to become. To quote D. H Lawrence again: “Men are not free when they are doing just what they like. … [they] are only free when they are doing what the deepest self likes. And there is getting down to the deepest self! It takes some diving.”
What about individuality? After learning the lessons of one or more of the wisdom figures who have gone before, there will come a moment when you will be required to discover the rest of the way for yourself. This is the moment of ultimate individuality – the point where the unique being you are will find, or not find, answers for yourself. But don’t be in a hurry for this great leap into freedom – learn all you can through practice, patience, and from the wise who travelled the path before you. Then, after the leap, be open to discovering that Joseph Campbell was right, and “where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”
There are different ways to understand reality. Most earlier peoples did not think about this, but simply accepted what they were taught about who they were and what life was about. But we moderns have challenged the old assumptions – birthing for ourselves both good and ill. The path forward is not to turn back from the greater individuality the modern world has brought; we cannot undo what has been done, nor should we want to. But if we are to find our way to healthier lives for ourselves and our communities, we will have to face the daunting task modernity has given us – of consciously choosing what we will believe, toward what we will aim, what we will value, and how we will be with other people.
Right now, each of us has the capacity and freedom (1) to cultivate an understanding of the larger reality in which we exist, (2) to choose values and intentions that will lead to a fulfilling life, (3) to nurture our communities, and (4) to find our connection to the larger pattern – that which Plato called “the Good “ What does this look like in practice? As Samwise Gangee put it: “Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.”
Frodo: “What are we holding on to, Sam?”
Samwise Gamgee: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”
And remember, Sam and Frodo were free to choose their own paths, but their whole journey and its meaning was within the “fellowship,” the community which they had freely joined.
Reflection: How can we keep the good that has been gained in modernity while integrating the things that earlier peoples had that we have lost?
How do we rebuild our connections to each other in a deep and meaningful way?
Be well,
David