Chill out, befriend opposition

No longer does the term community represent anything truly cohesive.

Each of us participates in a number of communities through voluntary association: churches, meditation groups, greek organizations, sports clubs, etc.

These communities meet, discuss relevant issues and work together. All members have some way of participating.

They often span the country or the globe despite physical limitations.

Our culture has become tribal. Those who don’t agree don’t have to see each other. Instead, they can simply join or form different groups.

In this way, we rarely ever have to solve our differences. We Americans are stubborn people. We are used to having our own way and plenty of space to expand into when we don’t agree.

Our freedom has divided us. Instead of developing a community with those closest to us physically, we further entrench ourselves within communities that uphold our ideologies.

The commuter culture, which has developed alongside suburban sprawl in the United States, allows — if not encourages — a physical separation between where one earns a living and where one lives. This weakens our sense of place and community.

It’s no wonder loneliness and heartbreak are associated with highways.

Now, instead of knowing our neighbors, we know those beside us in the polls and in the pews.

Some might say it doesn’t matter where we find community as long as we have it to support one another.

I say community should not only facilitate mutual support but mutual criticism, as well. Knives should be cleaned as well as sharpened, and only friction provides a sharp edge.

As someone fairly liberal and without religion, I find conversations with the faithful and conservatives most productive, not in that we always come to agreements or make decisions, but in that I learn more about myself and others.

Many with strong opinions seem ready to disregard opposing opinions as being unworthy of even consideration. To continue this trend is to perpetuate the absence of true community.

City council meetings and town hall assemblies will never be quite enough to remedy this issue. It might sound strange, but what we need and are sorely lacking is ritual.

I’m not talking about religious or spiritual ritual, but simply an assembly of people who share a common intention.

The intention might be as simple as providing a platform for the honest and open discourse we now lack.

We must recognize that change is perpetual, and that community — bound together by physical proximity and recognition of its members’ interconnectedness — mustn’t require a specific occasion to gather.

This recognition of interconnectedness is crucial. All of our choices affect one another and contribute to larger change.

For this greater, trend-driven change to positively influence a community and its members, it must be discussed in an open and neutral forum.

The media, both national and local, is divisive and non-participatory, and thus cannot fill this need.

It’s time to chill out, befriend our opposition and build community through productive discourse.

­— proren@indiana.edu