by Jenab6 » Tue 22 Apr 2008, 14:00:11
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I')TA, I hate to see the selfishness and the separation from nature and other people. I hope changes lead to community and greater interdependence. The individual is great, but community is a wonderful part of existence as well. I think greater balance between the needs of the self and the community would be quite healthy. Then again, I wake up in a cold sweat thinking what kind of horrors would have to occur to convince people to change.
I am suspicious of "interdependency." It doesn't look to me like a sound basis for community - any worthwhile community relationships should be voluntary matters of preference, not goaded by the threat of privation for non-conformers. Rather, interdependence seems to be a way to build
fragility into a community; making it possible to destroy the whole by destroying any of its necessary parts. With individualism comes a certain strength, since no longer can the community be deprived of anything when a part of its membership is lost.
Of course, specialization has advantages. Not everyone is equally talented in any particular craft, and it is best for those with the most aptitude to practice it. But this kind of dependency will arise by itself; it does not need to be planned or coordinated. Skilled people will spread their services as the seek markets for them that aren't crowded already by others with the same skills as they do.
I doubt that there is any reason to "design" a society so that the natural interdependencies are magnified. Doing so would appear to lead to weakening the community, more often than not.