What is "Community"?

[Barry]

Community (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community) is a hot topic here on WaccoBB ("Connecting Conscious Community") and out there in the rest of the world.

We've discussed what it is to be "conscious" from time to time (https://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccotalk/53440-waccobb-net-community-values.html#post90270), but what about "Community"?

What is "community"? Are there different kinds? How do you know if you are in one? Where does it end? Are there boundaries and rules? Or just implicit agreements? Why is it important? What does it offer? And does it deliver?

Do you consider WaccoBB.net a community? Why or why not? How can we make it stronger?

The Wikipedia entry on community (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community) has lots of background and is well worth a read. But I'm more interested in how you personally hold and experience community, and how it is expressed here at WaccoBB.net, and how that might be enhanced.

I have some thoughts about this, but first let's hear from some other "community members" including those lurkers who haven't posted much!

Barry

[magenta]

Great question, Barry. Here are my initial thoughts:
'community' implies a shared commonality, whether it be a location, values, belief system etc. I view WaccoBB to be a sort of extended intentional community. The guidelines for the board includes values such as respect & remaining conscious/introspective, which I interpret to include compassion and understanding.
One of the reasons I participate is my intention to improve my conscious-communication skills. it is one thing to be compassionate, it is another to communicate/articulate it, especially when in disagreement or struggling to embrace another viewpoint. :heart:

[Tars]

What is "community"? Are there different kinds? How do you know if you are in one? Where does it end? Are there boundaries and rules? Or just implicit agreements?

I was hoping to see other regular contributors post their opinions here, before tossing in my two cents.

"Community" to me doesn't require shared location, purpose, or philosophy. A community of people to me just means that there are people who can function within proximity of others around them, without unacceptable disparity. Most often "unacceptable" is defined by the individual. If they feel the disparity is too great between the community and themselves, they simply go elsewhere. Or, in rare cases, the group decides that a particular individual is too disparate to the group-accepted norms of behavior.

[CSummer]

With much appreciation to Barry for starting this thread, I have a question or two to add:

What is the highest potential of "community?" i.e., what would the true or ultimate expression of community look like and what can it do for humans?

How can we realize this highest potential?

I want to offer what I've come to in answer to these questions in the near future . . .

Clint

[jitterbug]

I appreciate Barry for opening this conversation. Before I even moved to Sonoma County, WaccoBB.net showed me that a conscious community could exist in today's world. I was thrilled that there seemed to be a kind group of people who help one another. I believe that I will forever recognize how special this is, and never take it for granted - like the natural beauty of our landscapes.

Community recognizes differences. I believe that a vibrant community must be diverse. Each member offers something different. The differing opinions keep a community strong and help it to see each issue from it's many inherent facets. I don't believe that any one person can possibly see the whole clearly on his or her own. Therefore, "conscious" community, to me, does not mean homogenous. It means respecting each individual member for what he or she brings to the mix.

I appreciate that WaccoBB.net provides a forum for individuals who are seeking personal and spiritual growth and that for the most part each member of this community is encouraged to speak their mind. With that said, a community must have general conduct agreements. It would be expected that some members would adhere more closely to the agreements than others. I believe that the community itself needs to come up with ways to model and teach principles of conscious communication.

If we assume that all readers at WaccoBB.net are coming to the forums with an intent to participate in conscious community, we can then move on and begin to adopt user (community) agreements regarding conduct. These agreements are by nature fluid and open for review as the community sees need to modify them. Community members ought to be invited to speak their mind without fear of opposition. Rather, in a conscious community individuals thoroughly seek to understand. Once understanding is reached, disagreement and the offering of alternative ideas is welcomed. This exchange educates and promotes true cooperation. Without competition for the "right" opinion, all viewpoints can be respected and honored for what truths they bring to light. Together, we can cooperate to build understanding of what we each experience as reality.

Just my :2cents:,
Debbie

[tomcat]

I read the Wikipedia entries for Community, Progressive and Conscious.

These words seem to have meant different things to different people at different points in time depending on who they were and where they came from. There seems to be varying degrees of agreement among some experts on precise definitions. The words have been used by various groups, both liberal and conservative, to give meaning to what they were experiencing. I imagine that they must have explained exactly what they meant at the time so that their group could all be on the same page.

When you use these words, people may interpret them differently than you because of their own experience, unless you define them.

So, in my opinion Barry... since you are the captain of this ship, it is up to you to put the definitions in place if you have certain expectations on how they should be interpreted in relation to this BB.

[santarosie]

I've been thinking about this question for a while.

I think a community is a living, breathing thing, because it is influenced by living breathing things. It can grow, shrink, thrive, survive, wither, and sometimes die. It has a sense of self, made up of the bits and pieces of it's contributors, and overall it will be unique and different from every other community due to the sum of those parts. Although a design for a community can be conceptualized, it cannot be controlled or constrained from changing through it's natural evolution. But you can try to shape it, nurture it, educate it. I think that is where the conscious part of community comes in. The strength in the desire to have it be or mean something special can influence it's importance, and magnitude and direction of growth. We are each part of many different communities, each aspect of our lives is like a circle around us. Where one of our circles intersects other peoples circles, a community exists, and not always by choice. We want each community we are part of to be the best it can be, but we can't all like everything all of the time. There's always competing interests. It's like juggling, and having a lot of balls in the air, we can't concentrate on all of them equally all of the time. So sometimes you have to let one drop in order to focus your attention on others for a while. It's pretty hard to expect everyone in the community to give all of their energy and attention to any one circle all of the time. So it continually evolves.

I sincerely appreciate how much hard work goes into maintaining and improving the Wacco community. I enjoy it on many levels. I don't contribute my opinions too often for several reasons. One of them is that I don't have the time required to compose something I am comfortable posting on a specific topic. And I don't really relate to social networking in general. I prefer person to person or group encounters. The idea of posting to general cyber-space feels a lot like talking to yourself, or your TV. I need feedback I can assess. But I turn to Wacco for information, help, entertainment and as a place to vent on occasion.

I genuinely like everything that has been done with the Waccobb site. There's been a few interlopers I haven't cared for, but for the most part I think the moderators are thoughtful and conscientious and step in appropriately when necessary. I find it pretty easy to ignore anything that I find offensive. I love that ideas and suggestions are considered, and new features are always being implemented to make it easier, better, cooler. And almost all of the interactions I've had with others in the community are positive and interesting. Bottom line: I back it up by being a supporting member. And I basically tend to trust other supporters the most. As the old adage says, put your money where your mouth is.

[CSummer]

I appreciate that tomcat took the trouble to look up and read what Wikipedia has for Community, Progressive and Conscious. I would like to suggest another way, though, for coming up with a definition, especially for the word "community." You might call it a cooperative or holographic approach to defining a word, in which everyone involved expresses what the word means to them. As each person hears the other definitions with an open mind (and heart?), their own personal meaning can expand and begin to incorporate other perspectives. It's like a hologram created by lasers, which is made up of a large number of images, each taken from a slightly different angle. The result is a picture with an added dimension, with the quality of depth that enables it to be viewed from many perspectives.

For the word "community," our experiences and associations will make up part of the meaning. We can go beyond what we might have experienced, though, to include what we have imagined or envisioned a community could be. Why limit ourselves to what is or has been? I have heard that aid workers in some developing countries have encountered resistance when they tried to introduce new possibilities to people who had always lived in relatively primitive ways. If what they want to offer went beyond the experience or knowledge of the people, the challenge would be to expand their sense of possibilities to include something of which they prevously had little awareness.

If community is about togetherness or connectedness, my sense is that we could use some new ways of being together and connecting. So I suggest we not limit ourselves to one person's definition or to what we've experienced, but open ourselves to many perspectives and to possibilities that go beyond what we have known.

To me, community can mean the other (village, tribal, extended family) way of living together on the earth, of meeting all of our needs cooperatively, through relationships based on real knowing, caring and sharing. Such a "conscious community" is, I believe, something that goes beyond what most of us have ever known. To me it implies an all-inclusive quality of awareness and hence of connectedness: with our selves on all levels, with our fellow humans, with the earth that sustains us and with all-that-is (with the Mystery of Existence).

Perhaps we need a word other than "community" for such a society and way of life, something not so overused that it has become almost meaningless. I welcome any suggestions.

And the next question is: How do we get from here to that other way of life and society that is peaceful, sustainable and deeply connected? How do we find our way from fragmentation to wholeness?



I read the Wikipedia entries for Community, Progressive and Conscious.
These words seem to have meant different things to different people at different points in time depending on who they were and where they came from. There seems to be varying degrees of agreement among some experts on precise definitions. The words have been used by various groups, both liberal and conservative, to give meaning to what they were experiencing. I imagine that they must have explained exactly what they meant at the time so that their group could all be on the same page.
When you use these words, people may intrepret them differently than you because of their own experience, unless you define them.
So, in my opinion Barry... since you are the captain of this ship, it is up to you to put the definitions in place if you have certain expectations on how they should be interpreted in relation to this BB.

[Dram]

All communities are exclusive and all people walk on bugs so inclusive has a limit, kind and caring has a limit, what works for a group to become a community is how the group advances each and every ones life...there would be no point to be in a community that did not advance ones interest...so if it falls to that common point of whats in it for me then everything else becomes skill which is individually determined and is not hinged on waiting for the perfect people to arrive.

I see no defined objective that can make use of the varied skills and talents of the " inner circle" as well as those living the wild life in the underbrush...

There is some responsibility in laying claim to being progressive...you have to live up to it...

so what does that look like? Can you be progressive and conscious and still live in the architectural styles of habitat and community that suck the marrow out of the bone in their energy and time requirements...

The greatest thing you can buy with money is privacy...and this should be and was supposed to be a given as in Constitutional rights...

So that little barrier rises all the time...I want my community but I want my privacy...how do the twain meet?


I appreciate that tomcat took the trouble to look up and read what Wikipedia has for Community, Progressive and Conscious. I would like to suggest another way, though, for coming up with a definition, especially for the word "community." You might call it a cooperative or holographic approach to defining a word, in which everyone involved expresses what the word means to them. As each person hears the other definitions with an open mind (and heart?), their own personal meaning can expand and begin to incorporate other perspectives. It's like a hologram created by lasers, which is made up of a large number of images, each taken from a slightly different angle. The result is a picture with an added dimension, with the quality of depth that enables it to be viewed from many perspectives.

For the word "community," our experiences and associations will make up part of the meaning. We can go beyond what we might have experienced, though, to include what we have imagined or envisioned a community could be. Why limit ourselves to what is or has been? I have heard that aid workers in some developing countries have encountered resistance when they tried to introduce new possibilities to people who had always lived in relatively primitive ways. If what they want to offer went beyond the experience or knowledge of the people, the challenge would be to expand their sense of possibilities to include something of which they prevously had little awareness.

If community is about togetherness or connectedness, my sense is that we could use some new ways of being together and connecting. So I suggest we not limit ourselves to one person's definition or to what we've experienced, but open ourselves to many perspectives and to possibilities that go beyond what we have known.

To me, community can mean the other (village, tribal, extended family) way of living together on the earth, of meeting all of our needs cooperatively, through relationships based on real knowing, caring and sharing. Such a "conscious community" is, I believe, something that goes beyond what most of us have ever known. To me it implies an all-inclusive quality of awareness and hence of connectedness: with our selves on all levels, with our fellow humans, with the earth that sustains us and with all-that-is (with the Mystery of Existence).

Perhaps we need a word other than "community" for such a society and way of life, something not so overused that it has become almost meaningless. I welcome any suggestions.

And the next question is: How do we get from here to that other way of life and society that is peaceful, sustainable and deeply connected? How do we find our way from fragmentation to wholeness?

[CSummer]

I really enjoyed this: "all people walk on bugs so inclusive has a limit."
Thank you for that, Dram! Isn't it true, though, that there are limits to what we can do, on this plane at least. Seems like that's the deck we have to play with when we (choose to?) incarnate as physical beings. A question that might be worth asking is: Are we limited by what is really physically or humanly possible or by our own awareness?

> what works for a group to become a community is how the group advances each and every ones life...there would be no point to be in a community that did not advance ones interest..

I agree! Ask not what you can do for community; ask what community can do for you! Or for us. What is in my interest is whatever helps me to meet my needs and realize my highest potential. Can community do that for me? I believe it can, if we define it as people coming together to explore ways to be and work together that will empower each person to find or create whatever they need - for life, health, love, peace, happiness. Imagine what might be possible when we meet with the purpose of building mutually supportive and caring relationships to enhance our lives.

> I see no defined objective that can make use of the varied skills and talents of the " inner circle" as well as those living the wild life in the underbrush...

If "those living the wild life in the underbrush" have all their needs met and are at peace with the rest of the world, perhaps they have no need for community. Or maybe they're already part of a supportive network.

Our real human needs are what we share in common and are the ground that we can stand together on - if we're willing to be open and honest with ourselves and each other. We offer each other community when we express our willingness to explore how we can work together to create environments in which all needs can potentially be met. What can unite us is our longing for a more connected way of life that provides a context and channel for our passions and highest aspirations to find expression.

> So that little barrier rises all the time...I want my community but I want my privacy...how do the twain meet?

I don't know about "privacy," but there is certainly a real human need for solitude. If a community cannot offer that, it is surely doomed to fail. We require solitude in which to do the learning and growing - in awareness and understanding - that make real relationship possible. Community without solitude is a concentration camp or mind-controlling cult; solitude without a sense of connectedness is isolation that keeps us inwardly divided, avoiding our seemingly insatiable hunger for caring companionship.
The twain meet when we recognize and support even these opposed needs - when we allow time and space for both to be met.

Thank you for your words, Dram. The more I seek to understand them, the more value I find in them.



All communities are exclusive and all people walk on bugs so inclusive has a limit, kind and caring has a limit, what works for a group to become a community is how the group advances each and every ones life...there would be no point to be in a community that did not advance ones interest...so if it falls to that common point of whats in it for me then everything else becomes skill which is individually determined and is not hinged on waiting for the perfect people to arrive.

I see no defined objective that can make use of the varied skills and talents of the " inner circle" as well as those living the wild life in the underbrush...

There is some responsibility in laying claim to being progressive...you have to live up to it...

so what does that look like? Can you be progressive and conscious and still live in the architectural styles of habitat and community that suck the marrow out of the bone in their energy and time requirements...

The greatest thing you can buy with money is privacy...and this should be and was supposed to be a given as in Constitutional rights...

So that little barrier rises all the time...I want my community but I want my privacy...how do the twain meet?