It’s not okay to give money to local arts organizations, go to great lengths to be active in the community, etc: there is a big difference between the activities that actually are a key component of a healthy personal life, and the broader set of vaguely moralized projects and activities that happen to have become popular in middle / upper class Western culture. We should be bolder in challenging these norms.
On a different note though:
I actually agree with this claim, but it’s a weirder claim.
People used to have real communities. And engaging with them was actually a part of being emotionally healthy.
Now, we live in an atomized society where where community mostly doesn’t exist, or is a pale shadow of it’s former self. So there exist a lot of people who donate to the local arts club or whatever out of a vague sense of obligation rather than because it’s actually helping them be healthy.
And yes, that should be challenged. But not because those people should instead be donating to the global good (although maybe they should consider that). Rather, those people should figure out how to actually be healthy, actually have a community, and make sure to support those things so they can continue to exist.
Sometimes this does mean a local arts program, or dance community, or whatever. If that’s something you’re actually getting value from.
The rationalist community (and to a lesser extent the EA community) have succeeded in being, well, more of a “real community” than most things do. So there are times when I want to support projects within them, not from the greater-good standpoint, but from the “I want to live in a world with nice things, this is a nice thing” standpoint. (More thoughts here in my Thoughts on the REACH Patreon article)
I feel that my folk dance community is a pretty solidly real one—people help each other move, etc. The duration is reassuring to me—the community has been in roughly its current form since the 1970s, so folk dancers my age are attending each other’s weddings and baby showers but we eventually expect to attend each other’s funerals. But I agree that a lot of community institutions aren’t that solid.
I recently chatted with someone who said they’ve been part of ~5 communities over their life, and that all but one of them was more “real community” like than the rationalists. So maybe there’s plenty of good stuff out there and I’ve just somehow filtered it out of my life.
The “real communities” I’ve been part of are mostly longer-established, intergenerational ones. I think starting a community with almost entirely 20-somethings is a hard place to start from. Of course most communities started like that, but not all of them make it to being intergenerational.
I saw what seemed like potential communities over the years “soccer club, improv comedy club, local toastmasters” but I was afraid… to be myself, being judged, making a fool of me, worried about being liked… so I passed. Here I am now in EA giving it a shot. I may go to the improv comedy mtgs soon. According to Hari’s “Lost connections” finding a community is very important; we social animals and don’t do well in loneliness.
On a different note though:
I actually agree with this claim, but it’s a weirder claim.
People used to have real communities. And engaging with them was actually a part of being emotionally healthy.
Now, we live in an atomized society where where community mostly doesn’t exist, or is a pale shadow of it’s former self. So there exist a lot of people who donate to the local arts club or whatever out of a vague sense of obligation rather than because it’s actually helping them be healthy.
And yes, that should be challenged. But not because those people should instead be donating to the global good (although maybe they should consider that). Rather, those people should figure out how to actually be healthy, actually have a community, and make sure to support those things so they can continue to exist.
Sometimes this does mean a local arts program, or dance community, or whatever. If that’s something you’re actually getting value from.
The rationalist community (and to a lesser extent the EA community) have succeeded in being, well, more of a “real community” than most things do. So there are times when I want to support projects within them, not from the greater-good standpoint, but from the “I want to live in a world with nice things, this is a nice thing” standpoint. (More thoughts here in my Thoughts on the REACH Patreon article)
I feel that my folk dance community is a pretty solidly real one—people help each other move, etc. The duration is reassuring to me—the community has been in roughly its current form since the 1970s, so folk dancers my age are attending each other’s weddings and baby showers but we eventually expect to attend each other’s funerals. But I agree that a lot of community institutions aren’t that solid.
I recently chatted with someone who said they’ve been part of ~5 communities over their life, and that all but one of them was more “real community” like than the rationalists. So maybe there’s plenty of good stuff out there and I’ve just somehow filtered it out of my life.
The “real communities” I’ve been part of are mostly longer-established, intergenerational ones. I think starting a community with almost entirely 20-somethings is a hard place to start from. Of course most communities started like that, but not all of them make it to being intergenerational.
I saw what seemed like potential communities over the years “soccer club, improv comedy club, local toastmasters” but I was afraid… to be myself, being judged, making a fool of me, worried about being liked… so I passed. Here I am now in EA giving it a shot. I may go to the improv comedy mtgs soon. According to Hari’s “Lost connections” finding a community is very important; we social animals and don’t do well in loneliness.
fold dance community sounds wonderful and fun :)