The Relationship Of Individuals To Community

Human beings have a deep need to feel a sense of belonging, which supports their affinity for community.

As described in To Find The Way Of Love, the hunter-gatherer society appears to have been a community that satisfied those basic needs. Because there was no surplus, everyone was constantly joined in the tasks necessary for survival and the common good. Although there was competition among males for sex, based on the necessary virtues of strength and endurance in that primitive context, it appears the basics were shared because the community had to survive. There was a community. People belonged.

With agriculture came surpluses, which changed everything. Social stratification emerged and was rewarded and reinforced. In our more recent history, societies worldwide, have promoted, supported and rewarded whatever behaviors they considered necessary for their success. Some continued to emphasize cooperation e.g. the Israeli kibbutz, and the Mondragon Corporation in Spain. Others embraced competition (a primary tenet of capitalism.) So, community can be profoundly affected by the most powerful underlying value – cooperation or competition.

In today’s U.S., even reality television, primarily centers on competition. Be it for: singing, dancing, cooking, survival strategies, weight-loss and the various court shows with real judges deciding who wins and who loses. Then there are the beauty shows, sports events, and game shows of every kind.

The common thread uniting them all is that there is only one #ONE and the prize goes to #ONE.

Despite judges gratuitously saying, “You are all winners because you made it into the top 10 or 5 or 3, the shower of confetti, the money, the prize, the excitement is all for the #ONE. The WINNER!

It has been reported that more people vote for their favorite contestant on “American Idol” than vote in the Presidential election. It appears that people feel they can affect outcomes in the world of entertainment, but not in the world of money, power and politics.

Another perspective, however, may slowly be emerging on reality TV. There is a show called, “Undercover Boss” in which a CEO goes undercover, often disguised as a blue-collar worker, to learn about his or her company directly from employees. Although, the employees we come in contact with are doubtless pre-selected by the show’s producers, for maximum drama, the outcome feels genuine and humanizing.

We watch with amusement as the boss goes through several trainings and several tasks with more effort than ability and we hear the appraisal of the trainers. The workers who did the training are brought to corporate headquarters on a ruse where they meet their “trainee” now, out of disguise and revealed as the company’s CEO. Everybody wins. The CEO has learned from his experience how the company operates at ground level and about existing problems. The employees have been seen, heard and validated.

Aside from being entertaining, something of value has occurred. There is a sense of community that is then reinforced at a mass meeting with the rest of the company. Here, all is revealed with video clips and the boss talking about his education. There is a general feeling that all will benefit.

We use a reality television show to illustrate a basic human need for belonging and the affinity for community, and how that is dealt with on one show. For that to be supported and encouraged in our larger reality show of life, we need the right ingredients. They include, for leaders and participants; curiosity, respect, openness to new experience, a desire to learn, an acknowledgment of what one knows and what one doesn’t, and an awareness of the basic equality of our common humanity.

Oliver & Barbara

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