The fading of community

Sam Smith - One reason I like living in a small town in Maine in a time like this, is that community is still alive and well. And to thrive here one has to be part of the community.

One of the major, and largely unnoted changes in American society has been a shift away from the values of community to those of intense individualism, political and social identity, and corporatism. Business schools have played no small part in this shift. Not too many decades ago, we were producing only 20,000 MBAs a year; now the figure is around 200,000. And the movement of many from small towns to cities has left them more isolated from others.

Personal achievement has also taken the lead over constructive involvement with others. This achievement is valued on its power not its virtues. We have spent more than a few decades laying the groundwork for a Donald Trump; we just didn't notice it.

In my town, you have to belong to get ahead.

I am aware of this in part because, during my life, community saved my butt.  Whether a result of my childhood, mental problems or intrinsic anxiety, I was never very good in the power game.  I was poor in sports, didn't enjoy card games and was unwilling or afraid to take the chances that led others to the top.  I even turned down job offers from the Washington Post and James Reston of the NY Times.

What worked for me was working with others. When I look at the good times, I'm struck by how often others were involved. For example, I started in radio and behind the microphone and the studio window was an engineer, without whom you couldn't get your own work done. I was operations officer on a Coast Guard cutter with a crew of 50 and whatever our rank we shared an understanding that we all depended on each other. For forty years I played in jazz bands, first drums and then piano, but other instruments whose main function was to help others. And activism in civil rights and other causes in the 1960s involved cross-cultural alliances far more than you see today.

Now I'm in a town where achievement is judged not by strength over others, but the ability to work with, and achieve, with others.And it works.