The Virtue of Community

Nothing like a little Aristotle to clarify your thinking.

Consider this. In the psycho world people are treated as individuals, as independent and even as autonomous. When psycho professionals define the goal of treatment, and even of adult life, they see people moving toward less dependence, less concern for the wishes of others, less willingness to follow the rules that society lays down, and more creative, individually.

Now, consider this, from Aristotle, quoted by one Chris Arnade in a Free Press essay:

“Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient, is no part of a city-state; he is either a beast or a god.” 

Arnade continues:

…there is no such thing as a human without a community, and all cities are a reflection of that.

People are human because they belong to communities. They follow the rules that make them members in good standing. They know that some people also belong to their community, while others  belong to other communities.

Arnade theorizes that human despair come about when people feel that they have been separated from their communities:

Human despair is no longer primarily a result of economic destitution; rather, it is due to a lack of functional and healthy communities, and the current challenge for most of the world’s political class is understanding that.

If  standard forms of community no longer function people join other forms:

 When traditional forms of community erode—family, faith, place, and yes, bowling leagues—people will gravitate toward drug traps, bars, and gangs, like water running to the lowest point.

My theory, which I’ve been suggesting since the lockdowns began, is that the spike in crime, protests, and other antisocial behavior in the months and years immediately following was a manifestation of the despair that comes when humans are wrenched apart; a national and sometimes global display of the pent-up, simmering anger that comes with isolation.

As it happens, psycho theorizing sees human development in terms of love and aggression. People seek to become one with each other through romantic love. And they aggress others who interfere with their self-contained self-sufficiency.

As for the other important point, therapy insists that your truth is the worst, whether it is the worst you have ever imagined or the worst someone has ever done to you.

If we return to Aristotle we discover that he saw the most important ethical relationship as-- friendship. You can find this in his Nicomachean Ethics.

Friendship is a social tie. In principle, it does not contain lust or aggression. Better yet, as Aristotle put it, friends see the best in friends. They do not look to uncover the worst. 

If true love is not the meaning of life, then marriage is not merely an expression of love. Marriage is based on roles, rules and routines.

It, like other community institutions, is based on the ability to follow one set of rules. If you cannot follow the rules, then true love is not going to bail you out.