What’s the rough consensus on how much we as a society herald community? Currently the US’s sense of community basically feels demolished, as a country we’re so individualistic by culture and isolated by infrastructure. On one hand it’s hard to build a community, your location is at the whim of employers and could vary frequently, it hard to have a real community where the members continuously change, and it’s hard to have hope for a community when you don’t even have hope that the people will be able to stay. On the other hand it’s hard to attend communities when considering how much time and energy is being taken by our professions, how little discretionary funds are left from our compensation, and how every third space that remains is profit motivated environment that we almost rely on for social interactions beyond our homes.
Looking at it, I feel like this lack of community is a self perpetuating cycle. As an isolated individual you’re no longer a beneficiary to communal benefits like cost and time saving from economies of scale, having a few people handle bulk food preparation so that the majority don’t end up paying extra premiums and use their time unnecessarily, and regular passive social interaction, making for profit third spaces less necessary. Without these benefits the individual is left paying more money, ending up with less time, and becoming more reliant on private entities for aspects of our well being.