(The following post was originally posted by Natalie on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 on the blog Outermost Village Green and is being reposted here with permission. She only got one answer there. We can do better can't we?)
"Looking out from the top of a high tenement, over the housetops of Manhattan, I can see a pale tower with its golden pinnacle gleaming though the soft morning haze; and for a moment all the harsh and ugly lines in the landscape have disappeared. So in looking at our utopias. We need not abandon the real world in order to enter these realizable worlds; for it is out of the first that the second are always coming. "
The Story of Utopias, Lewis Mumford
pg.29
I often struggle between all the things I see that are disappointing in this city, the grimy streets (oh so much more murky with the new slush), the broken down buildings, the trash. When I moved down here I was overwhelmed by it all, having spent so much time in the country (which would be my whole life previous). But as I learned to live here I got used to parts of it, even started to see past much of it, to other aspects of the city. Sometimes those broken old steps and gangly rod-iron messes can look rather beautiful, striking even. and sometimes not..
Anyway, this quote resonated with me because of my experiences here in the city. Having had such a harsh reaction to so many of what I considered the " disheartening" aspects of living here and yet still coming to a place of appreciation. I can draw from these reflections of what my life is here and undoubtedly use it, in my life to come. Which is something I would very much like to be communal in nature ( and involving many, many more trees). Everything comes from what was before right?
Now a question is just what is it that will or could make up each of our realizable worlds? How does community ideally manifest itself?
Food for thought.
Love to all of you,
Natalie
3 comments:
Wow, nice post.
Well, as is somewhat implied in the phrasing, I've always felt that communities are more a state of mind than something physical. I believe there does need to be a large degree of a face to face interaction, but simple face time with others does not a community make.
Having said that, I feel a community manifests itself through the feelings and deep interpersonal and emotional ties those interactions bring. The sense of connection one experiences with others is how a community expresses itself as a community.
The idea that there has to be a physical expression or function that a community has to perform to assert itself doesn't work for me. There certainly will be things a community will do, but those are mostly just byproducts of a community and not the necessities of it.
I think through that, a community, left unhindered, will grow into a fair and nurturing society where the population care and help one another.
Cas, first, well said. Second, do you ever get tired of being a woman? A community does need a sense of connection to form and thrive, but there has to be a force, usually external, driving it together and holding it together. All that "Love thy Neighbor" crap is good and all, but there has to be a reason. Without a cause for the cohesion (be it stopping invaders, hunger, or any common goal) the community will quickly dissolve as there is no need for it.
As far as utopias, they don't, and furthermore, can't exist. They're mythical constructs built in the mind of the simple who try to imagine a way out of their impoverished situation. The hard truth of it is that any society must have a bottom class to function and that class is more often than not walked upon and given only scraps of the total resources. To think there can be a Utopian society of equality is naive.
You might be able to setup a society for one brief shining moment ala Camelot, but it would quickly tear itself apart. Individuals are coded and hardwired to be greedy. You can't circumvent human nature.
You know, I beat if we had a question, "Are bunnies fluffy?" Nate would write an essay comment how bunnies are a lie and covered in lice.
In regards to what else Nate said, the whole point of a utopia, or realizable world as Natalie calls it, is that we have overcome our baser drives and instincts and built something more in tune with our higher selves and ideals.
The quoted passage touches on that with the idea of the of better world springing from the real one. We see our present and work towards a better future.
The manifestation of that, in answer to Natalie's question, is the keeping to of those ideals of our higher and enlightened selves. It's demonstrated through a community or society that makes the right choices rather than convenient or easy ones.
Also it's important that individuals work and strive to maintain their community and not think it's someone else's responsibility. Any community is only as strong as the individuals that comprise it.
Post a Comment