A feeling of community

by logansrun 11 Replies latest jw friends

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  logansrun

  For bettor or worse -- and it definitely seems it was worse for some here -- the Witness religion provides a sense of community for it's members. Humans are social creatures; we evolved to be part of a community. There are practical, emotional, intellectual and, if you want to use the word, spiritual, benefits to having some sense of group belonging. It's written in our genes to feel this way, in my understanding of human nature.

  But, alas, ever since the Enlightenment there has been a turn towards the individual as central to human life. There have been enormous benefits to this shift; much human progress has come out of thinking and acting against rigid authoritarian structures. Nevertheless, this indivdiualism has come at a great price. With the emancipation of the individual has come the loss of community. Religion once provided a real social identity for people, but only in sects like the JWs or in the most conservative brands of Evangelicalism do we find any sense of meaningful group affiliation. Many people have become lost -- alienated -- in the sea of the large city -- or the urban sprawl of a Suburbia. With smaller families, both extended and nuclear -- thanks in part to birth control -- many people have simply lost any sense of community that our ancestors found comfort and enjoyment in. There is a book about this phenomenon that I haven't read but the title tells it all..."Bowling Alone."

  For many ex-Witnesses this lack of community and social identity is exacerbated by the fact that we have been ostracized by family and friends and have essentially had any sense of personal-communal-family history obliterated. Although I still feel a sense of continuity through my parents (who don't shun me) and my life-long best friend (who is essentially not a JW), the longing for a sense of community is deep within me. Unfortunately, for all it's worth, this board can only go so far.

  My question to you is: Does this situation -- not jus mine or yours, but of modern man in general -- make sense to you? Have you found a sense of community, be it secular or religious?

  Feedback?

  Bradley
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  purplesofa

  Have you found a sense of community, be it secular or religious?

  I am beginning to feel a real sense of community with my job. I see them every day.

  For the first time I do not keep them at arms length because they are " worldly."

  It is a nice feeling and they don't get all in my personal business.

  They are very nice, generous, educated people (most are doctors)

  purps
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  JamesThomas

  My sense brad, is that there are two different levels to this haunting need for unity.

  One is on an animalistic level; a genetic protect the species level, where a sense of comfort and security is found in tribe/family/group. Nothing wrong with this. It is the way of things; and we have little of this these days,especially in western society.

  On a deeper level, there is a sense we are cut off from the vine, from the whole. A kind of fish out of water feeling. This haunting remains even when physical community needs are met. I feel this, though agonizing, can be a blessing; a motivator or catalyst that stimulates us to deeper inner investigation; and eventually to the discovery of what we truly are.

  j
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  logansrun

  James,

  I have heard it said that if one is of a pure mind (meaning, not on an ego trip) and goes deeper introspectively, there will be a greater sense of community -- indeed, a sense of oneness and sympathetic understanding with everything (obviously, including humanity). What starts off as a spritual practice of detachment, becomes a sense of greater attachment with humanity (though, not a selfish attachment). Witness Ghandi, for instance.

  I have not experienced this though...yet.

  B.
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  greendawn

  Indeed humans have a strong social instinct that needs to be gratified through social intercourse, those people that were/are perfectly happy to live as hermits are very few.
  
  Modern societies make for loneliness and individuals tend to compensate for it through the warmth of sexual relationships, Trying to find social (or spiritual) gratification in a cultic group carries an aweful price. They will make you pay for it ten times over especially if you decide to turn your back on them.
  
  I am sure there are lots of other harmless outlets. I've found a sense of community by associating all be it loosely with a sincere evangelical group, or participating in clubs of which so many exist covering all sorts of interests, my interests are history, music, computing, psychology, nature walks.
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  Daytona

  There are some souls searching for community who must face the fact that there is no community for them.

  It's when they face that wall, accept it and climb it, that they then find peace.

  Daytona
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  TheWord

  In todays world, I would rather be alone in my thoughts then to be associated with those that see no need of self-discipline. Oneness of mind in discipline nets better friends then those you cannot trust. A person not in trust does not care who they hurt along their walk in life.

  I would rather be with a man content with simplicity and the necessities of life, then to be with a person that wants everything in the world. This type of person does not care whose feet they step on in the process of finding, or attaining their material wealth. In other words, it takes a long time to put trust in anyone you can truly call your friend. It is better to associate with ones of like mindedness IMO

  word up
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  JamesThomas

  Brad,

  I would explain it as the exact same consciousness which is reading this now, shedding everything -- but itself. What remains is an unmoving, crystalline purity of awareness, that carries nothing; no judgment; no sense of separation; no me; no other; no needing; no anything. Vast, open, conscious-purity with nothing between Itself and what is met. It's not so much a sense of communion as no two here to need such.

  j
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  Satanus

  This could be the direction that evolution is taking, socially speaking. Nationstate mentality is weakening through the corrosive actions free trade and corporate hunter gathering. Before that was the age of empires: british, turkish, roman, greek. They broke up. Also, along w their dissappearance went the king/queen concept. They had given people an identity. As in the french revolution, when kings and queens were done away with, people last their anchors.

  Today, individualism along w globalism is advancing due to various factors. And so, as people are thinking more individualistically, they also tend to think more beyond the bounds of their particular nation, by taking into consideration more of the world. Groupthink slowly gives way to individualthink and globalthink.

  This change is painful and disorienting. As growth pains in an adolescent, these are similar, imo.

  S
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  Tigerman

  Get a job.