We’ve been talking more and more about community here lately. Partly because it’s a topic that will always be important and relevant to men. After all what is a wolf without its pack? A man without his tribe, his people? His volk or folk? His culture? Not much, man alone as a atomized individual doesn’t fare to well. He’s prone to getting picked off by any predator that comes by.
But with a people a man can stand strong and become more. With a real community a man will feel like a fish swimming in water instead of a fish stuck on dry land pretending that he’s okay. But say you’ve found your community, found the place you belong so to speak. Maybe you’ve moved or you’ve branched out and now you’re thinking “This is it, this is where I want to be.”
You’ve found a place that’s not too big, has a relatively healthy culture, is homogenous and not too divided politically, racially, culturally, or religiously and where people seem to have some semblance of having each others back. Generally places like this are only found in small towns or our of the “Western” world. But let’s say that you’ve found one.
What now?
How A Man Becomes More
We’ve probably all heard the saying that through action a man becomes a hero through death a legend and so on and so forth. But truth be told there is not a whole lot that a single man can do on his own without other people, really nothing. Great artists inspire and influence other people, great statesmen influence other people, great warriors would be nothing without their soldiers beside them and retainers that make the functioning of an army work, great athletes nothing without others to influence and watch them. And so on and so forth.
As much as I advocate for times of isolation and silence at the same time understand that man is a social creature and is always referenced within the context of a group. Meaning that man is nothing without men. While I think that every man should his best and become as independent as he can and not be a burden on the tribe. At the same time the man should understand that he’s not going to be fulfilled or at his best by himself.
He needs to be attached to something greater human wise. Sure he needs attachment to God if you ask me but he also needs attachment to other humans and the ability to work through other humans. To give to something that’ll grow. To, as weird as it sounds, plant seeds in other people and let them grow and become something. Whether its an idea, wisdom, ways of living, culture, or in the case of man and woman a child.
Through influencing others a man becomes more.
Before You Start…Ask Yourself What A Community Is
I see so many people waste their lives trying to help others. A big reason for this is that many people are still stuck in a community mindset when they live in an area that is every man for himself because of all the divisions between people. Trying to help a community where everyone is at each others throat is an act in futility and foolish. It’s a waste of time, throwing pearls before swine and all of that. The first thing to understand before you spend your time helping you community is ask yourself, is it actually a community?
Communities can only stand so much size and so much division. What do I mean by this? Well we have Dunbar’s number which states that “humans can comfortably maintain 150 stable relationships” essentially beyond 150 people, people become a number. Now that doesn’t mean you need to live in a community/town of under 150 people. Rather the larger that things get, the harder it will be to have a community. New York city is not a community, Cornville Iowa with population 8,000 could be.
Another thing, is diversity. I may get some hate from this but its the truth. The more diversity a place has the less cohesion and community that place has. The more diversity a place has the more atomized the individuals of that place become. Diversity leads to conflict. I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing, only that it is a thing. And by diversity, I don’t just mean diversity of race though that counts. Also diversity of religions, cultures, peoples, ways of living, though patterns, and so on and so forth. The more homogeneity a place has across all those lines the easier it’ll be for that place to form into a community.
Humans are tribal, that’s just a fact.
How To Give Back
This article is running longer than I intended, it’s just that a lot of people get the wrong idea about community. So now that we have all that established how do you give back. Well the number one thing that you can do is volunteer your time and look out for others. Address needs in your community. Look around. Maybe it’s something like coaching, maybe it’s forming a writing group at the local library, maybe it’s getting on the city council. At the very small level these things aren’t controlled and you can actually do some good locally.
Find out what needs to be done and do it. It makes absolutely no sense to me why someone would send money and aid around the world when their neighbor is in need. You’d give a coin to someone that hates you but not give it to your brother in need? That makes no sense. Time, money, and influence and the three big things you have to help a community and we all have them in different quantities.
Find one that you can lend to your community and make it better around. When you’re going about your daily life address problems that you see. In a small community one man can make a difference, can even change the course of a village or town. Don’t concern yourself with the world as a whole, the world’s been screwed since the start. Focus on your community and the good that you can do there.
