Comment by JohnFen
12 days ago
> There is no "local community," so there is no local production in any meaningful sense anymore.
This is absolutely not true everywhere in the US. In every place I've lived, there has been local community. More vibrant in some places than others, but always there.
I can't know if that's the case in all parts of the US, but I suspect it's true in the majority.
> I am nothing like my neighbors, never have been, and have never known very much about them in any of the places I've lived.
Perhaps you've been opting not to engage with the local communities you've been in?
Communities that are local =/= local community in a general sense. There are in some places participatory communities that (often older, middle class, family-oriented) people participate in, but I'm not sure those organizations can meaningfully be said to represent the localities they are present in.
When there's a loneliness epidemic that is especially pronounced with young people, it seems really silly to act like local community is a general institution that most people actively participate in. It might be true in your neck of the woods. It is certainly not in mine.
I'm using "local community" as a convenient placeholder for all the various things that count as community-based activities and groups.
> When there's a loneliness epidemic that is especially pronounced with young people, it seems really silly to act like local community is a general institution
One of the reasons for the loneliness epidemic is that people have stopped seeking out and participating in things that get them face-to-face with neighbors. That's a thing only those people can fix for themselves. As a light example, you said
> I am nothing like my neighbors, never have been, and have never known very much about them in any of the places I've lived.
Where in the same breath you both claim that you have nothing in common with your neighbors, and that you have never known very much about them. However, you can't know if you have anything in common with them or not unless you get to know them. A first step toward finding what community exists around you is as simple as making it a point to get to know your neighbors.
I am fairly confident that people's agency is pretty low on the list of reasons why loneliness had reached epidemic proportions. There are very obvious cultural and geographic (and ultimately economic) factors at work that none of us as individuals ever really chose, but which have been decided for us. Anomie is not something that can be overcome through sheer force of will.
I know enough about my neighbors based on small glimpses of their lifestyle to know I will never want to or need to know them. I don't make friends with child abusers. And the reality is that those sorts of value conflicts are commonplace in contemporary American life.
They didn’t say “most people actively participate in” local community. They said people should do more of it, and you replied that there’s no such thing. Sorry you feel that way or that it may (or may not) be true where you live, but bold claims like “local community doesn’t exist,” and ambiguous gesturing toward it never having existed, is both untrue and unhelpful.
I didn't mean to imply said local community has never existed, only that it no longer does. I'm not convinced that the cloistered, middle class, older, and predominantly white communities that exist in every medium to large city are capable of creating art of any substance. And the art they may create certainly could not be said to represent anyone in any general way.