Cultivating Community

Utopia— A wonderfully strange word that brings to mind images that mirror the Garden of Eden. In a world filled with strife, conflict, and uncertainty the idea of a perfected world is one we all delight in from time to time. We look at the current political situation and voice our ideas of how to improve the issues at hand; we judge the opinions of those in power and state how we would have the answers if placed in their role. Often though, as we speak of our “utopia,” we think first of ourselves: how to create a world that meets our own ideals and needs. Yet, isn't this the problem? We live in a time dominated by “me” first— everyone else second. So wouldn't an obvious first step to building utopia be to think first of community and of ourselves second?

What would need to be done to achieve Utopia when most people center their lives singularly? Creation of community would be the first step towards a more perfect world. Community creates responsibility and accountability among those who live in it, and as a result when problems arise, rather than face the struggle alone, community members would have a support system to rely on. Additionally, members would be forced to make decisions that benefited the community as a whole and not small segments of it.

Why is community important? Sadly, at this time in history many of us have lost the desire for human interaction and connection. It is easier often to email, text, or DM someone than to call and have a live conversation or, scarier yet, actually have a face-to-face interaction. Community outside of the virtual world forces us to make human connections, and through those connections find real, solid utopian-like happiness.

How can we cultivate community? The source of our struggle seems to be one thing: money. We don't have enough money; we have an excess of money; we want to get more money; we want to spend money. We work our entire lives towards the goal of financial security because as a result we believe we’ll be able to find peace of mind. While money can solve many of our problems, it is also often the source of many other problems. In order to create a stronger, unified community, money would have to be removed. In place of money to provide for ones needs (I.e. food, medical care, security) a bartering system would be put in place. As a part of this bartering system people would identify their own unique talents and exchange their talent for services they need. For example, a farmer can exchange food he produces to a veterinarian for medical care for his animals and vice versa. This would help to build community because the system would be interdependent on each individual to be successful as a whole. While a major flaw of this system would be that if one person were to fail the whole system might collapse. This, perhaps, is the only way utopia could ever exist beyond imaginary confines— to recognize that struggle and strife will always exist and can not be wholly removed; with this in mind, a utopia would be created as a community working together to resolve issues that arise with the intention of protecting both the individual and the community as a whole.