Comments on: Tearing apart the patchwork quilt of society http://www.thegoodcity.com/2007/10/tearing-apart-the-patchwork-quilt-of-society/ city, culture and church · Fort Wayne, Indiana Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:50:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Karen Goldner http://www.thegoodcity.com/2007/10/tearing-apart-the-patchwork-quilt-of-society/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Karen Goldner Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:10:38 +0000 http://thegoodcity.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/tearing-apart-the-patchwork-quilt-of-society/#comment-59 I agree with you, Jon. We have created a world where interaction with people different from yourself is optional - and increasingly opted out. There has always been economic and social stratification, but it seems much easier now for us to ignore the occasionally pesky realities of other people. We don't have to learn how to get along: affluence just lets us buy our way out. Why learn how to get along with a sibling when you have your own room? Why learn how to get along with a neighbor when you can either close yourself up in the house or simply move? Part of the reason I love the neighborhood where I live, by Northside High School, is that for whatever reason people are actually outside (at least during good weather!) The neighbor kids play together and in doing so learn how to get along with other people. The adults and the kids talk to each other, and we know our neigbors, at least by first name. I don't know every single thing about my neighbors, and don't particularly want to, but I know them enough to feel some common interest with them. To me, that is what community is all about. I agree with you, Jon. We have created a world where interaction with people different from yourself is optional – and increasingly opted out. There has always been economic and social stratification, but it seems much easier now for us to ignore the occasionally pesky realities of other people. We don’t have to learn how to get along: affluence just lets us buy our way out. Why learn how to get along with a sibling when you have your own room? Why learn how to get along with a neighbor when you can either close yourself up in the house or simply move?

Part of the reason I love the neighborhood where I live, by Northside High School, is that for whatever reason people are actually outside (at least during good weather!) The neighbor kids play together and in doing so learn how to get along with other people. The adults and the kids talk to each other, and we know our neigbors, at least by first name. I don’t know every single thing about my neighbors, and don’t particularly want to, but I know them enough to feel some common interest with them. To me, that is what community is all about.

]]> By: Zachary Benedict http://www.thegoodcity.com/2007/10/tearing-apart-the-patchwork-quilt-of-society/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Zachary Benedict Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:33:11 +0000 http://thegoodcity.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/tearing-apart-the-patchwork-quilt-of-society/#comment-58 The one difference I immediately see between what we would define as a traditional “community” and these internet affiliations exist in the branding of such systems. Over time “community” has always been defined with words like “our,” “we,” and ,”us.” Now we see things like “MYspace” or YOU-tube. I think in some ways that is where the disconnect lies. A vast majority of the internet dialogue it really nothing more than exposing first-person narratives… like letting someone read your diary (hence the blog-boom). But in some little way that just doesn’t seem the same to me. In many ways it just feels as though the medium has taken the inclusion or collectiveness out of the conversation and turned it into a compilation of one-person discussion(s). Than again... I am writing this on a blog ; ) The one difference I immediately see between what we would define as a traditional “community” and these internet affiliations exist in the branding of such systems. Over time “community” has always been defined with words like “our,” “we,” and ,”us.” Now we see things like “MYspace” or YOU-tube. I think in some ways that is where the disconnect lies. A vast majority of the internet dialogue it really nothing more than exposing first-person narratives… like letting someone read your diary (hence the blog-boom). But in some little way that just doesn’t seem the same to me. In many ways it just feels as though the medium has taken the inclusion or collectiveness out of the conversation and turned it into a compilation of one-person discussion(s).

Than again… I am writing this on a blog ; )

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