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fandomhigh2024-06-04 04:20 pm
endsthegame) wrote in fandomhigh2024-06-04 04:20 pm
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Practical Philosophy, Tuesday
"Last week, we touched some on the subject of community," Ender began, setting aside his sandwich as the last student took a seat. "Throughout the history of this planet, what a community is has shifted and changed. Once, taking care of the children was something an entire village came together to do, something that fostered bonds between those within the larger group. Distances were long, those who were closest to you were what mattered."
He picked up his water. "In the previous century of this particular place, community as a concept got split right down the middle. You had the core community, the 'nuclear family' - two parents and their two children, living together in one place. Surrounding that, you had the state, a collection of beliefs and ideas about what was normal and what was not, what was good and what wasn't."
He took a sip. "That's an intimidating concept for a species still physically equipped to think in groups no larger than perhaps a hundred individuals," he said. "And thus, an idea that has often broken down. But it also has advantages, in that it allows for people to exist beyond the norms, to push the community forward, if it is willing to listen to its outsiders."
"In the 1980s, we saw an upsurge of what's called 'communitarianism'. Those philosophers pose the idea that we are all shaped by and in relation to our community, and the individual has less power than one might think. But we've seen ideas about community and philosophy entrenched in the very core of our politics, too; authoritarianism, the political philosophy where one single leader holds control, often posits that that leader is somehow ordained or uniquely wise to the ways of 'the people', a concept of a single monolith of a community that is 'true' while all other things are false."
Another sip. "On the other hand, liberalism, another leading philosophy of this time, seeks to counteract the very idea. It argues that individuals are more important than community, or that a community actually thrives best when each individual pursues an improvement of the self in whatever way they see fit."
He set down the bottle.
"But let's not get too far into politics," he said. "I am curious what your relationship to community is like. How much were you shaped by the one in which you grew up? Do you still look at it kindly? Or did you reject it - or it you? What do you consider 'community' now, and how important is it, do you think?"
He picked up his water. "In the previous century of this particular place, community as a concept got split right down the middle. You had the core community, the 'nuclear family' - two parents and their two children, living together in one place. Surrounding that, you had the state, a collection of beliefs and ideas about what was normal and what was not, what was good and what wasn't."
He took a sip. "That's an intimidating concept for a species still physically equipped to think in groups no larger than perhaps a hundred individuals," he said. "And thus, an idea that has often broken down. But it also has advantages, in that it allows for people to exist beyond the norms, to push the community forward, if it is willing to listen to its outsiders."
"In the 1980s, we saw an upsurge of what's called 'communitarianism'. Those philosophers pose the idea that we are all shaped by and in relation to our community, and the individual has less power than one might think. But we've seen ideas about community and philosophy entrenched in the very core of our politics, too; authoritarianism, the political philosophy where one single leader holds control, often posits that that leader is somehow ordained or uniquely wise to the ways of 'the people', a concept of a single monolith of a community that is 'true' while all other things are false."
Another sip. "On the other hand, liberalism, another leading philosophy of this time, seeks to counteract the very idea. It argues that individuals are more important than community, or that a community actually thrives best when each individual pursues an improvement of the self in whatever way they see fit."
He set down the bottle.
"But let's not get too far into politics," he said. "I am curious what your relationship to community is like. How much were you shaped by the one in which you grew up? Do you still look at it kindly? Or did you reject it - or it you? What do you consider 'community' now, and how important is it, do you think?"