The Argument Against Community, Part Two

Americans, by and large, do not live as if community is a major aspect of their lives. Why not?

Read part one of "The Argument Against Community."

3) The priority of the individual. The individual, after all, is what America is all about. It doesn't matter where you come from, who your parents are, what your social class at birth was. The American dream is that you can make yourself into whatever you want. If something isn't working for you, drop it and try something else.

Much of the power of community, however, comes from its demand upon the individual to submit his or her personal needs to those of the community. For example, a monastery is defined by its "rule." If each monk were to take the freedom to choose when and how he would observe the rule, the monastery would quickly lose its distinctiveness from the world around it. The monastic order would dissolve into a collection of unhappy individuals.

American culture has made individualism a virtue, to the point where many supposed Christians say without a second thought, "God would want me to be happy" - a statement without precedent in Christian scripture or theology - as an argument for their individualistic decisions. True community asks that an individual be ready at any moment to reject his happiness for the sake of the group. Many Americans call that a fool's game. The same men who weep at the sacrifices of firefighters or soldiers begin looking for an escape hatch when called to sacrifice their personal happiness for that of their family, town, or country.

Next, the final argument against community, the priority of the family.