Comments on: Us

By: Below The Beltway » Blog Archive » Required Weekend Reading

Below The Beltway » Blog Archive » Required Weekend Reading — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 23:22:39 +0000

[...] Next, Cicero looks at the aftermath of Katrina and says that its the American people, not our institutions that define our greatness. [...]

By: Spastica Rex

Spastica Rex — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 14:37:02 +0000

This was utter nonsense. Maybe if *you* feel better, some good came out of it.

By: Callimachus

Callimachus — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 03:47:48 +0000

Welcome aboard, Gone Away. It's a rocky ride, but I hope you'll be glad in the end. Coincidentally I was just re-reading the story of another Brit who did us all proud recently and reminded us of how we ought to live up to our own ideals. He's here, if you care to follow. No, it's not George Galloway.

By: Gone Away

Gone Away — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 02:04:54 +0000

Wow. An insightful and far-reaching article. As a Brit recently arrived in the States, I can only say that you have hit the nail on the head. Americans have impressed me with their welcoming and hospitable attitude at the community level but their politics are so divisive! I am astounded at the vitriol that passes for political debate in this country. My hope must remain with that great middle America that retains the ideals of this great nation.

By: Callimachus

Callimachus — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 01:20:54 +0000

Very thoughtful, Cicero. My thoughts on your thoughts are here.

By: Lynn S

Lynn S — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:30:04 +0000

Good essay but I can’t entirely agree with it. We still have a strong sense of community and it really comes out at times like this. I have seen a number of reports of individuals and groups who came to offer help and were turned away by various authorities. Whatever else they do wrong, the worst thing about the government is arrogance. No matter how many times they screw up they still think that only they are capable of handling situations and that ordinary Americans are just in the way. And it seems that more and more Americans also believe that only the government is capable of handling situations.

By: Aristides

Aristides — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:31:30 +0000

Good essay, provacative and in many was distressing.

I wonder if dislodging the “community” from its geographical and historical underpinnings causes society to fracture when catastrophe steps in and reintroduces reality. First came the dispersal of the extended family, then the break up of the nuclear family, and finally the communicative exile of the individual. Much worse in big cities, this hermetic existence is starting to seep to the countryside. Kids have cell phones, instant messenger, chat rooms, and Ipods. Adults are no better.

People don’t talk to people anymore. They chat, and they work, and they play. All serious talk happens online…the new community.

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 15:41:38 +0000

This is a really good post and has got me thinking. I apologize ahead of time if this is a rambling reply, because I don’t really have an opinion. It just seems to me that communities in the past that were strong communities had a common morality or goal. We don’t even have community in our families anymore. Each person in a family has their own agenda and life and coming together becomes difficult. We each go off to schools and jobs which we aren’t connected to either. I know that I didn’t care much about my schools or feel any sense of pride or belonging. I guess I could have tried to force myself to get involved but I don’t think I could ever have been enthusiastic about that.

I am just thinking that maybe as a family, or school, or neighborhood that if you felt your presence actually had an impact then it might feel more like a community. Like if your family needed you to survive and prosper, then I think working together and community would just be natural. But as it is, one person can come or go and no one really notices because no one is connected as far as, “I need you to do this or I won’t get to do this and everything will fall apart or at least be harder.”

By: Walter E. Wallis

Walter E. Wallis — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 15:14:46 +0000

As we study this disaster, let us see why the disaster response required that every one in the command chain make an immediate, correct analysis of the situation and take that action, within the law, that would be unarguably the best action to take. Any law that works only if everything is perfect is a really stupid law. A system that falls apart if any single component fails is a bad, bad system. Bad systems are the fault of bad designers.
Congress, in the comfort and ease of your offices, rewrite the laws so as to make the best use of whatever information, people and materials are at hand. Make those laws with the knowledge that perfection is the enemy of good enough. Until congress is perfect it is hypocritical for them to demand perfection of others.

By: Jason G. Williscroft

Jason G. Williscroft — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:58:54 +0000

Ugh, your blog engine ate my semicolon! Here’s that URL again:

http://www.thedeadhand.com/blogs/jscroft/archive/2005/09/06/9173.aspx

By: Jason G. Williscroft

Jason G. Williscroft — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:57:56 +0000

Beautifully written, and straight to the heart of the issue. I’m afraid that when the dust settles–and the waters finally recede–many New Orleans residents will wonder privately what they could have done, individually, to avert this disaster.

I hope the rest of us can at least learn something at their expense. My own take on the subject is at http://www.thedeadhand.com/blogs/jscroft/archive/2005/09/06/9173.aspx; I’d be interested in your comments.

By: jonathon

jonathon — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:54:21 +0000

A well said meditation on culture, community, and culpability. Your observation reminds me of the frustration many of us feel whenever an institution attempts to formalize community in the sense you’ve articulated. My own experience tells me such attempts are doomed from the start, yet those in the institution who advocated the program are left scratching their heads wondering why the progam failed.
Recently in an interview for my current teaching position I was asked how I would encourage “collegiality” among my fellow faculty. I said that this was a matter that had to be approached indirectly, for collegiality is something like community in that it is based on mutual trust and respect. Now, I had seen several formal programs to “build a teaching and learning community” at my previous campus, and they not only failed abjectly, but slowly poisoned the relationships the programs were attempting to strengthen. Why? The reasons you gave above make it clear: In the end there is no replacement for the bonds formed in a _real_ community, and no amount of institutionalized “community” can ever be an effective substitute.