No matter
what the initial topic for our Opensewer Gatherings, we
always seems to end up discussing community
in one form or another. So why not just give the topic an
entire meeting all its own?
What does the word "community"
mean exactly these days? What role does community play in
our contemporary lives?
One could argue that sixty
to one hundred years ago, real physical community had a
more active role in society than it does now. Is this true,
or have new forms of community that are just as valuable
taken over?
Community has proliferated
on the Internet (look at Blogger,
Cafe
Utne, or Dreamless).
It is real, and it is meaningful. Could it be a substitute
for what we've lost? Other than the obvious lack of a physical
connection, what are its true dangers?
As we attempt to build our
own sort of in-real-life/online hybrid community with Opensewer,
these issues are at the forefront of our minds.
The
Gathering and Discussion
This
was the largest Cleveland Opensewer gathering so far, with
about twenty-five people in attendance. It was quite a wonderful
meeting, lasting from 7:00 PM to around midnight. This meeting
also saw a large diversity of ages: from about twenty to forty-five
years old.
The
discussion got hot and heavy very quickly, and within about
two hours was distilled down to the following primary views:
View
No. 1: The physical aspect of community is critical
to positive human existence, and cannot be removed from "the
mix" without negative ramifications. The human need to
touch, to be within actual physical proximity to other humans
is absolutely essential, and provides a positive level of
interaction that can not be replaced by anything else.
View
No. 2: Many forms of community can exist, including physical
and nonphysical, and no one form is better than the other.
In fact, the nature of physical community often imposes situations
of personal judgment and lack of privacy that can be quite
oppressive. These situations can prevent people from feeling
included, and can keep them from expressing their true feelings.
Obviously,
each of these viewpoints have some truth to them. Physical
community is richer and promotes stewardship and accountability
to other people, but can be oppressive. Community that is
independent of physical location can foster greater freedom
and creativity, but the sense of accountability to others
is often lost.
Although
disagreements about the nature of each of these types of community
continued throughout the evening, some common ground definitely
surfaced:
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