Community
Community is a word that is used a lot nowadays, especially since COVID. But despite all the talk we seem to be losing our sense of community in lots of ways. Maybe we are building a world that looks at the concept of community very differently. If not that, maybe the problem is that we are failing in some ways to appreciate that when we say community, we might be meaning society.
Community is a group of people in an area that have a common interest. A society is made up of many communities and not just geographically. So, a society’s LGBTI community for example has a unifying common interest, one based on recognition and non-discrimination of gender and sexual diversity. But this is one community in a much larger society. I think we are saying community but we are sensing problems within our society.
Societies exist because humans have through the millennia worked out that it is within groups that we do our best and unfortunately also our worst. We are essentially tribal beasts. Now whether it is so called identity politics or the take up of neo capitalism and its basic mantra of market-based solutions to any problem in the 1980s or the decline in group religion there has been a splintering and a loss of some of the vibe of society and I feel that is a problem. Being an individual is important but so is being an active participant in a society. Getting ahead is good but not if you can’t share or if you believe that you can never have too many things or too much money and not if you don’t care how you get there.
Big picture problems of the world like climate change are that much harder to solve if we can’t work together and working together takes recognition, acceptance and compromise. I can’t help but think if the world keeps going the way it is it will be our selfishness, ego and greed that will bring us all down.
“White Noise,” Don DeLillo’s post-modernist book has been filmed by Noah Baumbach and is now on Netflix. Starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle this ideas movie examines our fear of death but also has a bit to say in a very sly way about communities and society. It is a slow burn thinker of a movie filled with dialogue while also having some well-designed and shot action sequences. Set in a university town Adam Driver plays a professor [of Hitler Studies no less!] who is caught up with his family in a life and death situation due to the accidental release of poisonous industrial gases.
The film is made up of three acts. The first establishes the family and its place in the community. Everyone is quirky, there is lots of dialogue and some funny and sly digs at campus life before the gas leak in act two when the film turns surprisingly and effectively into a high action escape drama. The third act is all about the consequences of the leak, the wife’s secrets and the effect they have on the family. The actors are all very good especially Don Cheadle as a fellow professor but this is a movie that wants you to think along with the protagonists as they debate the vagaries of modern life, pop culture and our obsession with news, opinion and fame. Not a total success as a movie, the merge of highbrow satire and action drama doesn’t always work, but when it is good it is very good and worth watching if you this kind of thing. If you’re more of a down the line Jack Reacher movie kind of person stay away. White Noise will probably drive you nuts.
Also, about community but in a very different way is the novel “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Naylor. Set in the near future a brilliant scientist is virtually kidnapped to investigate a disturbingly intelligent and dangerous species of octopus that has been found on a remote island now owned by a secretive tech corporation. A commentary on the disaster we are doing to our world, big brother multi nationals and Artificial Intelligence this is a well-researched, gripping and thought provoking read. With action, killer drones, almost human robots and plenty of bad guys it would make a cracker of a movie. Most of all it investigates how we might communicate with a non-human intelligence and community almost equal to our own and whether we would learn from it or do our best to either enslave it or destroy it. As one reviewer said, “The Mountain in The Sea with a thriller heart and a sci fi head.” Couldn’t put it better myself, check it out.
Having recently moved to Melbourne the notion of community comes through clearly to me in a music sense by the fact that Melbourne has at least two great community radio stations – 3RRR and 3PBS. I have been listening to podcasts a lot in the last two years and while I have been listening to some new music it wasn’t that new in the sense of pushing me into the undiscovered. So, I have now started to listen to these two radio stations. For those not familiar with community radio what usually happens is that the DJs are volunteers who put their own shows together and the broadcasting day is split into two- or three-hour segments of different musical genres and some cultural and current affairs. Therefore, depending on when you tune in you could hear death metal, Peruvian folk songs, ambient, jazz or country and anything in between. The DJs are of course passionate about their genre so it is a quick and comprehensive introduction into a genre of music or artists you might have previously ignored. Being community based the stations live off donations, subscriptions, sponsorships by local businesses and of course they heavily support local performers and culture.
My goal is not to cherry pick shows or to change the station if something comes on that doesn’t grab me but to sit and really listen to the music that is on at the time even if my initial reaction is negative.
I know I won’t do this forever; life is too short to endure things that you don’t like after you have given them a good go but I am going to try for the first few months to broaden my musical horizons in the name of continual growth and the community.
Society functions best when we seek common ground, work together, support each other while acknowledging and coping with our differences in some things and revelling in our similarities in others. We need to spend a little more time enjoying our common ground instead of always bitching about our differences.
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
Six songs on the topic
What’s So Funny bout Peace, Love and Understanding – Elvis Costello and the Attractions
One Love – Bob Marley
Wonderful World Beautiful People - Jimmy Cliff
Everyday People - Sly and the Family Stone
Power to the People – John Lennon
Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil
