I think, while I agree with what you're saying, that we must be talking about different things. What I wrote originally was in the context of trust: that my quality of life requires that I trust the people around me, including my community (defined as the mass of people who live near enough to me to make a difference). Maybe if I give an example.
So, once summer starts (or even on unusually warm spring or fall evenings), people around here sometimes set off fireworks. Fireworks are illegal in this state. There's no set time when this happens, could be anytime between dusk and 3am. Fireworks, when unexpected, cause me a very uncomfortable stress reaction. And since I don't know when they're coming, I often end up in a state of heightened arousal just waiting for the pops and bangs. I scan weather forecasts, hoping for rainy nights. I sleep with the windows closed and the AC on when I'd much rather use a window fan because I know I'll be woken up if fireworks start and I won't get to make up the sleep. I hate this.
The people setting off the fireworks are members of my community; I doubt anyone comes from far and wide just to do this in my neighborhood. I have no way of knowing who they are. I could, I suppose, try to go and knock on the doors of everyone within a mile or so radius and explain the effect that it has on me. And/or I could try some sort of public outreach campaign - flyers? letters to the editor? a presentation at the library? hold a placard outside Town Hall? - to try and persuade people not to do it. (In actual fact I probably couldn't do these things because I don't have the time and energy for them right now.)
But even if I did these things, would that mean 100% definitely no more fireworks? No. Or even most of them? I doubt it.
What I mean by trusting my community is trusting all these people (*all* of them) not do to things which are wrong and do harm. As I said above, I don't think that's possible without either drastically limiting the number of people (i.e. very rural indeed) or insuring that the people have a pre-existing agreement on acceptable behavior and communication protocols in case things go wrong, as well as a general orientation toward thoughtfulness and respect for others (i.e. cohousing, likely also in a rural setting).
It is probably the case that I desire a level of control higher than most people's (or I have lower tolerance for certain types of issue than most people).
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Re: Growing the communities we yearn for
Date: 2013-07-28 04:02 pm (UTC)So, once summer starts (or even on unusually warm spring or fall evenings), people around here sometimes set off fireworks. Fireworks are illegal in this state. There's no set time when this happens, could be anytime between dusk and 3am. Fireworks, when unexpected, cause me a very uncomfortable stress reaction. And since I don't know when they're coming, I often end up in a state of heightened arousal just waiting for the pops and bangs. I scan weather forecasts, hoping for rainy nights. I sleep with the windows closed and the AC on when I'd much rather use a window fan because I know I'll be woken up if fireworks start and I won't get to make up the sleep. I hate this.
The people setting off the fireworks are members of my community; I doubt anyone comes from far and wide just to do this in my neighborhood. I have no way of knowing who they are. I could, I suppose, try to go and knock on the doors of everyone within a mile or so radius and explain the effect that it has on me. And/or I could try some sort of public outreach campaign - flyers? letters to the editor? a presentation at the library? hold a placard outside Town Hall? - to try and persuade people not to do it. (In actual fact I probably couldn't do these things because I don't have the time and energy for them right now.)
But even if I did these things, would that mean 100% definitely no more fireworks? No. Or even most of them? I doubt it.
What I mean by trusting my community is trusting all these people (*all* of them) not do to things which are wrong and do harm. As I said above, I don't think that's possible without either drastically limiting the number of people (i.e. very rural indeed) or insuring that the people have a pre-existing agreement on acceptable behavior and communication protocols in case things go wrong, as well as a general orientation toward thoughtfulness and respect for others (i.e. cohousing, likely also in a rural setting).
It is probably the case that I desire a level of control higher than most people's (or I have lower tolerance for certain types of issue than most people).