Culture

This definition comes from Andrew:

Q&A with the Public Professor – 1.4 Reinhardt: Yes, community is relative to size.  Since a community demands a basic level of familiarity and interaction among its members, there are limits to just how big it can grow, though an actual number would be impossible to come up with.  And there are certainly many, many small towns all across America that are well within the size range of a community.  But size isn’t the only defining element.  Membership, proximity, mutual obligations and responsibilities, value systems, and a veritable raft of rules on proper and improper behavior and ideals are also defining elements of thriving, functional community.  And by and large, today’s small American town have lost quite a bit of those elements.

Q&A With the Public Professor – 1.3 Reinhardt: People who live in communities, and they do exist in other parts of the world, have certain benefits that they often cherish.  A community can provide a sense of belonging and even help give purpose to life.  A community member is familiar with the people around them, as well as the expectations for how to behave and what to believe.  At the same time, however, Community rules and expectations can be restrictive.  Since a community demands a certain amount of loyalty and obedience, it tends to squelch assertive

Q&A With the Public Professor – 1.2 Reinhardt: The forces that led to the decline of American communities were complex, and the process took a long time to unfold.  For example, communities in the East were under

Q&A With the Public Professor – 1.1 Reinhardt: It’s no secret that over the last 15-20 years, political commentary in this country has become ever more partisan, but also increasingly vitriolic, manipulative, and at times downright nasty. And this applies to both sides of the political spectrum, whether you describe it as Liberal vs. Conservative, Left vs. Right, Democrat vs. Republican , or whatever labels you may care to use. On TV, radio, and the internet, commentators practically scream I’m a Historian, so perhaps it was natural that as I began to mull it over, I soon began thinking about how social issues, both large and small, used to get decided back in “the old days,” and what is different about that decision making process now? And that in turn led me to a whole mess of questions about how society is structured, how those structures worked in the past, and how they have changed over time. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that what was different now as opposed to centuries past, is that there are no more communities where such issues would get decided and enforced for and by the local population.

This definition was sent in by Mary D.:

A Book by Akim D. Reinhardt political partisanship. Since there are no more communities to set and enforce values and rules of behavior at the local level, Americans often find themselves battling fiercely over would-be community issues. Abortion, gun control, sex education, gay marriage, and countless other hot button topics can’t be decided at the community level because there are no communities left to decide them. And when enough interested citizens believe these issues are too important to be left up to individual choice, they dedicate their time, energy, and money to fighting it out in the media and political arenas, attempting to pass laws that will settle these issues for everyone. Reinhardt challenges you to re-conceptualize the world you live in. Whether it confirms your sneaking suspicions or contradicts ideas you’ve always taken for granted, Disintegration will encourage you to consider fresh ideas about how you understand and relate to (or don’t) the people around you, and why things are the way the are.