Why did we lose our sense of community?

[lostinstrangeworld]

Why do you think that people lost their sense of community once shared in the older days...and still shared in a few fortunate places around the Earth- often the 'poorer' places?

Is it the impersonalisation of the cities?

Crime and mistrust?


Can we bring it back again?

[alternative_answer]

We lost our sense of community and now have a fragmented society because we have it instilled into us that we cannot trust anyone. We should be suspicious of everyone and everything and this has created mass paranoia. The constant messages of watch out for the terrorist, paedophile, rapist, burglar, because they could be living mext door. Then were told the state is watching and monitoring is, MI5, police, and all other agents of the state, we know you and everything about you, so keep looking over your shoulder. We can no longer trust prime ministers, politicians, police, social workers, councils, to assist us. We have been forced to become insular and isolated from each other and society due to fear and anxiety in order to feel safe.

[lostinstrangeworld]

Aye, and children are no longer allowed to play on the street so they are not learning social skills....and often when they are it is the wrong kind.

[alternative_answer]

Quite; children spend more time in front of the idiot box watch TV or playing on play stations etc. They will become adults void of emotion and any sense of self and easily controllable and manipulated.

[disorder2k8]

the least compartmentalised individuals the more community

small towns and villages have this effect

[motleyhoo]

Because we shit on each other to get more money and stuff. In other words, it all comes down to materialism. The herd has been led to believe that materialism is the road to happiness, and like a good herd that is the road they are on. They're gonna be in for a rude awakening when they see what that road really leads to. The rest of us already seem to know.

[phemohilia]

The technique is as old as mankind.....


Divide & Conquer...

[Ian2day]

A 4 day working week would be a start.

[christophera]

The technique is as old as mankind.....


Divide & Conquer...

Add to this the dumbing down and dependence on corporations for everything with a substancial dose of psyops in media with semiotics employed, then a more pointed effort to offset the 9-11 truth movement, a place where real community with sacred purpose could be established, and the modern world is quite lost within itself.

[measle_weasel]

Why do you think that people lost their sense of community once shared in the older days...and still shared in a few fortunate places around the Earth- often the 'poorer' places?

Is it the impersonalisation of the cities?

Crime and mistrust?


Can we bring it back again?

I think its the sheer mass of people. How can a city of 20,000,000 people be a "community", when in a community (at least in my mind), everyone knows each other, on some level other than a statistical one? A community is a place without strangers. That is nearly, if not, impossible, in any city of any significant size.

[christophera]

I think its the sheer mass of people. How can a city of 20,000,000 people be a "community", when in a community (at least in my mind), everyone knows each other, on some level other than a statistical one? A community is a place without strangers. That is nearly, if not, impossible, in any city of any significant size.

If media was working for us, .......... a community of 20,000,000 is not unthinkable. A community shares a great deal of intentions towards one another, media can form that in the long term.

[drael]

Scale, and centralisation (ie cities).

If we one day decentralise again, its possible to reverse the effect. However, without impetus, that seems unlikely. (Though impetus may gather over time)

[jhado]

The closing down of the major industries, where whole towns worked together, be it mining, ship-building, the steel industry, car-production etc...
everyone knew everyone in those towns then.

Plus all of the current immigration is diluting the the community pool even more.
(Not meant as a racist remark, by the way)

Pubs closing is another factor, just recently added to the mix.

Television has to one of the biggest factors, people don't need to go out for "company" anymore.

New (cardboard) housing- states are shit too. In the old days, with communal backyards etc, one toilet for for 40 familys :D, people knew their neighbours, now it's lucky if you know the guy "over the fence".

There were more local shops to get your stuff, Bakers, Butchers, etc...,where locals met ,and talked to each other.
Now we just have Supermarkets, where no-one knows anyone.

Social interaction has changed a lot in the last 25 yrs, IMO, because of a lot of the above .

Plus ,of course of all the fear we are fed about how the streets aren't safe etc.

To summarise......Television!!

It tells us how to live our lives, so we obey!!!

That's my ramblings on the subject anyway.

[measle_weasel]

If media was working for us, .......... a community of 20,000,000 is not unthinkable. A community shares a great deal of intentions towards one another, media can form that in the long term.

I agree, if the media was working with and for the public, as it should be, creating a community on a very large scale would be much, much easier. Unfortunately, the media does not work for, and in, the publics best interest :(

[jammasterj13]

Divide, conquer and rule from the cradle to the grave.

[dynamicwiseman]

Not enought brave people in this country is the reason why we have gone down the road of greed/corruption/insuriureaty/hated/xenophobia/racism. positive freedom means the masses wake up and engage in a revolution where, thought this change in people a new better society would come. becuase of this lack of positive freedom in our communities we have become trapped, wondering around like lonely robots. Negative freedom is the opposite to positive freedom, as it requires that only the diseres of the individual should be met and that nothing should interfier with this, and that laws should be created to stop politicians from interfing with negative liberty. And what politicians are here for is to devilver us this dream of a world with negative freedom as it seems the best way society can live in peace, but the down side is that it has no meaning. Hence why we feel empty and unsatisfied.

[marpat]

Maybe it is deliberate in order to get people used to expansion and movement. This then makes people more able to deal with things like getting forced into other communities or preparing people to join the EU.

Also, the modern world is based on greed and success and being part of a sharing community can be a barrier to the ruthless pursuit of money and success.

[rhydra]

When there was a sense of community, the leaders of the country used to be beheaded when the people realised they were working against them and not for them. Now, when the electorate find out that their government is stealing from them, all they can do is complain as individuals, not overthrow their leaders as a unified force. In effect the events with the crimes in Westminster has illustrated clearly that the break up of the community was, indeed, a contingency which ahs worked for this very eventuality.

[steevo]

Social engineering has been used to breakdown communities and the family unit. We have been taught that greed is good and normal, and that it's "every man for himself". We have been manipulated into distrusting our fellow man.

[hunter77]

The closing down of the major industries, where whole towns worked together, be it mining, ship-building, the steel industry, car-production etc...
everyone knew everyone in those towns then.

Plus all of the current immigration is diluting the the community pool even more.
(Not meant as a racist remark, by the way)

Pubs closing is another factor, just recently added to the mix.

Television has to one of the biggest factors, people don't need to go out for "company" anymore.

New (cardboard) housing- states are shit too. In the old days, with communal backyards etc, one toilet for for 40 familys :D, people knew their neighbours, now it's lucky if you know the guy "over the fence".

There were more local shops to get your stuff, Bakers, Butchers, etc...,where locals met ,and talked to each other.
Now we just have Supermarkets, where no-one knows anyone.

Social interaction has changed a lot in the last 25 yrs, IMO, because of a lot of the above .

Plus ,of course of all the fear we are fed about how the streets aren't safe etc.

To summarise......Television!!

It tells us how to live our lives, so we obey!!!

That's my ramblings on the subject anyway.

excellent post and all to true:(

[nofuture]

Technology has become a tool for social disengagement but maybe that's what we really want.

Underneath all the social niceties, people just don't like each other that much.

[zero1]

A community of "have's" and "have-not's" is not a unified community, ever, in any sense. Capitalism and Television destroy communities.

[ging]

Why do you think that people lost their sense of community once shared in the older days...and still shared in a few fortunate places around the Earth- often the 'poorer' places?



I don't think the creation of 'Community Service' or 'Community Payback' as it is known nowadays has helped.

The association is that helping/serving your community is a punishment. Basic pyschology.

[hey_jude]

when I was growing up there was a real sense of community ...my grand parents, extended family and neighbours ...for me it ended when my single mum got a well paid job and took me and my brother away from the close knit family and left us with paid strangers. :(

[lostinstrangeworld]

when i was growing up there was a real sense of community ...my grand parents, extended family and neighbours ...for me it ended when my single mum got a well paid job and took me and my brother away from the close knit family and left us with paid strangers. :(

:(

{{hug}}

[lostinstrangeworld]

Immigration wouldn't be a problem if we could all just find a way to understand each other better.

But to begin with....people have to want this.

Some people seem content to hate others rather than to try to understand them. "Hate is easy....love takes courage".

[christophera]

I agree, if the media was working with and for the public, as it should be, creating a community on a very large scale would be much, much easier. Unfortunately, the media does not work for, and in, the publics best interest :(

The power to educate and unify that television has is immense. Instead it is used to divide, exploit and mislead.

The internet was funded by DARPA (CIA) under the premise of empowering peoples communications. The usenet was hosted on university servers dedicated to free speech. (I've been banned here for exposing true behaviors and naming them in 9-11 debate) Then, in 1995 the usenet was pushed aside and .com took over. Now, me and my apple cannot get on the usenet without special software, so the fed court decision allowing microsoft to rip off the apple operating system to create windows had a second effect after the gov subsidised PC was secured a place in society which it was about to loose with DOS.

Imagine if TV was forbidden to exploit and manipulate and instead educated then made commentary, empowered debate etc., on citizen agreements formed locally with the CB radio.

[bario]

The usenet was hosted on university servers dedicated to free speech. (I've been banned here for exposing true behaviors and naming them in 9-11 debate)

It's actually imopssible to get banned fully from usenet due to it's distributed nature and the numerous entry points, it's likely you only got banned from one server, there are thousands of others out there :)

Now, me and my apple cannot get on the usenet without special software, so the fed court decision allowing microsoft to rip off the apple operating system to create windows had a second effect after the gov subsidised PC was secured a place in society which it was about to loose with DOS.

You can access usenet using a web browser at http://www.usenetbrowseraccess.com/ or many other sites like it :)

[bario]

I've been trying to get involved with community projects around here lately and encouraging people to get involved. Initially I didn't think there was much of a community but once I started to get involved my faith was restored.

[steevo]

I've been trying to get involved with community projects around here lately and encouraging people to get involved. Initially I didn't think there was much of a community but once I started to get involved my faith was restored.

What sort of projects Bario ?

[darkman]

We lost our sense of community and now have a fragmented society because we have it instilled into us that we cannot trust anyone. We should be suspicious of everyone and everything and this has created mass paranoia. The constant messages of watch out for the terrorist, paedophile, rapist, burglar, because they could be living mext door. Then were told the state is watching and monitoring is, MI5, police, and all other agents of the state, we know you and everything about you, so keep looking over your shoulder. We can no longer trust prime ministers, politicians, police, social workers, councils, to assist us. We have been forced to become insular and isolated from each other and society due to fear and anxiety in order to feel safe.

plus 1

[steevo]

plus 1

+ 2

[gripit]

Smoke Bans. Nobody goes to the pub anymore, social infrastructure is being ripped apart world wide.

[bario]

What sort of projects Bario ?

The one that I've been focusing on is to turn a couple of pieces of wasteland in to community gardens. I think it's going to be a good start on turning the town in to a transistion town, I may not agree with the whole global warming thing but I like the transistion town idea.

[oceanwave]

Can we bring it back again?

it was never lost,...

we just forgot

in the tyranny of screaming

that, there is silence

where, we can see

our selves

our children playing

eternally, laughing...



:)

[hey_jude]

:(

{{hug}}

Awww thanks Lost, I think there is a great community spirit right here and your hug proves it :)

I was feeling a wee bit sorry for myself when I wrote that as I'd spent best part of 4 hours talking to 2 Medical Students who would not believe Big Pharma has there own interests at heart. So, in reality I spent 4 hours banging my head against a brickwall. They did however take a DI dvd with them :)

...People are suspicious and wary of you and your intentions ...I can honesty say that when I hand something to someone and say "here take it" - "no, it's free, no charge" they look shocked!

[jhado]

I've been out leafleting today, walking around various streets in my hometown.
The few people I met were friendly enough, some of them almost glad of some-one to talk to.
Most of the streets had no life though, just boxes arranged in different shapes, no atmosphere. No-one on the streets, everyone hiding indoors.

The friendliest ones I meet are pensioners, they like to talk and they're not afraid to offer opinions.

I'l be out again tomorrow.