Power in Community

We are a product of our associations, our community. We are declining in our ability to build community therefore declining as a nation. Isolation and divisiveness replaced unity in community.  The technological noise, from all the means to communicate, has actually made us more isolated. We have to go back to before the agricultural age in order to find a lower level of connectedness than what exists today.

Why do communities come together? The need for communication brings people together. The need for community will always be present no matter how advanced our society becomes. 

Conversation is the key to communication and thus the building of healthy communities. The sad thing is that even with all the modes of communication accessible today, we are more isolated than ever and not living in community. As people, we are not to live in isolation. 

Information exchange is the reason for communication and the basis of community. Today’s world is failing to teach the young the basic skills of communication. In a real community, people work together for the common unity and people realize the power of a united community.

Here are a few thoughts about the value of community:

1.      Ability to communicate in a community ought to be an important part of any education.

2.      The problems of the world could be prevented or resolved if we just took the time to communicate in our communities.

3.      The TV and the Computer brought isolation (empowered individuals and weakened our communities) to people breaking up our communities.

4.      We can only connect when we slow down and have conversations. We are emotional beings therefore the majority of communication takes places in a non-verbal way.

5.      It all started when career focused vocational training replaced the classical liberal arts education over 100 years ago. About that time we started to lose our ability to connect and communicate.

6.      If we don’t connect with each other, we cannot trust each other. In order for trust to occur we need to be able to communicate, to be believable, to create connections, and to be dependable and that is where the power of community comes from. In a true community there is loyalty and the loyalty comes from the culture created by community leaders.

7.      A culture that loses its roots becomes rootless and spreads rootlessness. Apathy then takes over the land. Does that bother you? It bothers me!!!

The art of conversation, from association, is the root of community. 

We must improve our ability to improve ourselves so we can create healthy communities if we are to remain free as a society.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others!

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)