Stronger Together or dead on our own
Community is essential to the human experience, yet it has been left to die under the weight of modernity. There is a crisis of comradery in the United States. The Covid era was disastrous for neighborly sentiments and the youth will suffer because of it. American exceptionalism was characterized by its individual communities built from the bottom up. Unique regional cultures were created out of the distinct personalities of townships in the young country. People were defined by the places they grew up and the community that raised them.
The country has grown far away from its original identity and replaced its cultivation of community with subservience to the state. Where people once relied on familial support, they now demand this from their government. The degradation of the neighborhood has made people more dependent on socialized services. The callous federal bureaucracy has substituted the nurturement of local charities, communal support and extended family. The self-induced isolation has made Americans more lonely, helpless and utterly incapable than ever before in history.
Communities were built to strengthen the individual. The importance of family and a local support system was somehow lost as the internet “brought us closer together”. Unlimited access to online strangers and a gradual transfer of power from local to federal governments has seized the universal concentration away from local affairs. Individuals are more focused on global politics and fringe ideologies than their personal real-life relationships.
The younger generations are inherently weaker without the same support that their parents and grandparents flourished under. For millennials, the inclination to build a family was destroyed with the lack of integral support from their elders. A feeling of abandonment is engrained in the modern generations, and it has made them susceptible to political promises.
Dependency leads to a totalitarian state as the people demand their rulers to provide the same help and services that used to come from within their own communities. As people leave their families, evacuate their hometowns, and run farther from God they create a void that must be filled. The divisiveness in the nation, the unfriendliness, and widespread social stigma is attributed to the degradation of community. The restoration of which, is essential to the prosperity of each individual and prolongation of the society at large.
“We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools”.
Your Homeowner’s Association Has More Power Than the Federal Government.
The nosey busy bodies in each neighborhood can reign far more influence over a person’s life than the president of the United States. The policies of a municipal organization or the notions of the HOA Board are just as enforceable, if not more so, than the U.S. Constitution. A radical city planner or board of directors can place liens upon personal property or even dictate the enforcement of certain federal laws. People have overlooked the gravity of power in local government while lionizing federal politicians with pitiful control over daily lives.
Communal ignorance steered this country’s capital and attention towards federal supremacy. While they do have less physical power over individual communities, representatives at the highest forms of government have little responsibility to reflect the needs of those communities. It is much harder to conduct oversight over politicians in Washington D.C. than the local school board. Proximity gives power to people as they can make life hell for those who govern poorly.
Governments are liable to the people; they owe their constituents certain protections and services. Those who squander that responsibility are promptly removed diplomatically or forcefully. The people have LOST this power as they did not defend the assets or ensure the liabilities bestowed upon the federal government. Fiscal deficits STEAL taxpayer dollars and make expected entitlements like social security unfunded and insecure. The current debts and inadequacy of the federal government is deserving of bankruptcy and dissolvement if it was treated like any other governing organization.
Municipal leadership and the law enforcement they employ are directly controlled by the people they oversee. The ability of the people to govern themselves at a community level is natural and part of the human condition. These organizations are only as powerful as the scope deemed necessary by its people. If social services and certain securities are considered obligatory, then the people of that government must produce those privileges with the available resources. Nothing is guaranteed that cannot by generated from the efforts of the constituency. This is organic governance that significantly contrasts with the debt fueled nightmare that is the federal bureaucracy. The community is more efficient, more effective, and beholden to the people.
It Takes a Village
The globalization of western countries and their economies have empowered multinational enterprise and markets at the expense of local small businesses. This has shifted the concentration of wealth away from the local economy and into corporations that are headquartered in separate cities. The dilapidated Main Street of many American townships is indicative of this shift. Local businesses must compete with foreign-made products, global supply-chains, and government subsidized corporations. The economic strength of the community has been sacrificed for the convenience of materialistic consumers.
Wealth as a measure of fiat dollar denominated assets is higher than any time in history for all age groups. Inflation has made homes and investments very valuable (in relation to the perpetually devalued currency) but TRUE wealth is collapsing. The limitless happiness derived from providing for others is at an all-time low. People are choosing soulless corporate work over careers that add value to their community. The acquisition of dollars has taken priority over real wealth that comes from family. The older generations worry about their financial retirement from work and displace their attention away from the family they wish to leave that money for. The younger generations see no point in building families while they struggle financially and seek to secure assets that inflate at rates far greater than their wages.
The greatest successes in life come from the cultivation of the unconditional love from children. This is no longer advertised in the consumerist economy. For many it’s seemingly impossible as they have lost the village necessary to rear those children. The incentives have changed; people are more focused on their employer’s interests and federal politics. Governments cannot raise kids with the same love and attention that comes from traditional parental households. The original community, the immediate family, is the bedrock of civilization and the only group that creates true personal fulfillment. Financial wealth can be squandered in a single generation. It never lasts, especially in an inflationary monetary system.
The priorities of Americans are upside down. The communities that built this nation are being degraded and replaced by government agencies with ideals antithetical to the people. Power is being consolidated in organizations that are horribly inefficient and ineffective at local levels. Humans have an instinctual affinity to create hierarchies within tribe sized communities as a social safety net. Governments arise out of a need for safety and capabilities that require a larger group of people. These societal backstops give certain infrastructural assurances that promote innovation and prosperity; but this works far better in more manageable homogenous communities.
The traditional systems of small government, localized markets and family dynamics cannot be replaced by an unchecked global bureaucracy. It is perversion of human nature that distorts the direction in which people put their faith and efforts. The federal government pretends to be the quick fix and cure all for every societal ailment; but it’s horribly inefficient and takes away the drive for individuals to solve their own problems through communal efforts. People want to help those around them, and they thrive when they have family and friends that they can fall back on.
Collaboration, charity and personal relationships are the government we always wanted. The only requirement is you give more than you receive. It’s not an easy system, but it’s the only one that works. If you find your people and do good by them, you’ll come to find it’s all you ever needed.