Community

 

We often hear some commissioners talk a lot about community during their deliberations; perhaps hoping it will make them appear more human and approachable.

I often wonder the extent to which they actually understand the meaning of the word.

Fabian Pfortmüller, a Swiss social entrepreneur and community builder in NYC claims he’s been on a lifelong journey in an attempt to figure out how communities work and how he can help to build meaningful ones.

As someone who works with communities on a daily basis and has studied hundreds of them over the last couple of years, Fabian senses a lot of confusion when it comes to understanding the meaning of the word. He suggests, “The term is used as a catch-all phrase for anything that has to do with a collection of human beings, from the very tangible to the very abstract.”

He freely admits, “Most of the ‘communities’ I come across, are in my opinion not actual communities.”

Fabian further alleges, “I think the traditional definition of community is outdated. It is mostly based on shared location: ‘a group of people living in the same place.’ I think the traditional definition is missing a key piece: ‘A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals’…people ‘that care about each other’: this is in my opinion the absolute core of a community.”

Certainly this foundational attribute of community exists at some level within our county.

Fabian believes—and I wholeheartedly agree—“When people care about each other, they develop trust. And trust unlocks collaboration, sharing, support, hope, safety and much more. While most organizations in the world optimize their performance towards external goals, communities optimize for trust.”

Trust is key to unfeigned community. Unless local leaders are able to cultivate trusted relationships through responsible governance, exhibiting empathy for the financial diversity that exists within our county, we cannot honestly claim we qualify as a “community” in the context of Fabian’s definition. Without trusted relationships, efforts become initiatives, agendas, projects, movements.

When this happens, communities break down as people opt out…choose to disconnect. And, as we have all witnessed, we humans are more disconnected than ever. We are hungry for genuine relationships and places of belonging.

Unfortunately, there are far too many of our neighbors for whom the community has lost its welcome and that all-important sense of belonging. But don’t take my word for it. Ask them. These are individuals from families who have, in many cases, lived here generation upon generation.

At the end of the day, these long-timers are forced aside as elected officials demonstrate their willingness to prioritize short-term gains at the expense of long-term well-being.

Consider: Over the last 20 years, Minnesota counties have seen increases in poverty and overall inequality relative to other states. In other words, income inequality is increasing throughout Minnesota, but in particular, in northern tier counties like ours. Suffice it to say, the last decade has not gone well for those living at or near poverty level.

Cook County’s poverty rate, according to DATA USA, is 11.9 percent, which translates to 617 out of 5,171 people, who live in Cook County, live below the poverty level.

In the early ’80s, I was an avid reader of trend forecaster and marketing consultant Faith Popcorn— often referred to as the “Nostradamus of Marketing.” As founder and CEO of the marketing consulting firm BrainReserve, Faith coined the word “cocooning” in her 1981 best-selling book titled, The Popcorn Report.

Five years later, in a 1986 article in The New Yorker, Faith explained the concept of cocooning: it involves building a “shell of safety” around oneself.

Two years after The New Yorker article appeared, in 1987, The Washington Post columnist George Will further explained, “the harassments of daily life–looming nuclear incineration, rude waiters–have driven people to ‘cocooning.’ They have gone to ground in their dens with their VCRs and compact-disc players, snug in their Barcaloungers equipped with stereo headphones, the better to keep at bay the modern world, the discontinuities of which have produced a longing for tradition.”

“People are really looking for understanding… there’s a search for compassion, a want for compassion. It’s a big want, need,” writes Popcorn.

I would add that genuine compassion is born of the ability to empathize– sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. People ultimately want to be actively listened to—that is fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively “hearing” the message of the speaker—in an effort to be understood.

As a community, we should never, ever normalize indifference, especially when seated in positions of authority.

While I undoubtedly recognize Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to be a cantankerous controversial figure—one of the most radical characters in the history of psychiatry—I do find substance in this quotation of his:

“We live in a community of people not so that we can suppress and dominate each other or make each other miserable but so that we can better and more reliably satisfy all life’s healthy needs.”

It is said Wilhelm’s work “held the keys to nullifying the core forces of coercion utilized by the world controlling elite to keep the rest of us in line.” One can only imagine how many big-ego toes he stepped on during his lifetime.

If we are to understand what it means when we speak of community, then I suggest we seek to understand its significance as defined by American psychiatrist and best selling author M. Scott Peck, author of the book The Road Less Traveled, published in 1978:

“Community is and must be inclusive. The great enemy of community is exclusivity. Groups that exclude others because they are poor or doubters or divorced or sinners or of some different race or nationality are not communities; they are cliques–actually defensive bastions against community.”

Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics.