TED & also Communitarianism

Dear all,

I have mentioned a few resources this week. Allow me to share.

One that I mentioned is a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, "How Schools Kill Creativity."

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

Now, what I've been doing I my spare time, when I'm not reading On Totalitarianism:

Read on if you'd like a summary of Communitarianism. (I see much common ground with what we have been discussing.)

The term is sometimes avoided because people tend to think it implies Socialism or collectivism, when that isn't really the case. Modern Communitarianism perceives moral breakdown due to excessive individualism. One of its key ideas is that community defines and shapes individuals. 

It seeks to balance the common good with autonomous rights.

There are no card-carrying Communitarians, but you've seen the philosophy reflected in everything from Bush's "compassionate conservative" to Hillary's "it takes a village" and Obama's "age of responsibility." I see common ground with Hannah Arendt especially on two points: there is an emphasis on valuing pluralism, and there is a call to balance individual rights with social responsibility.

Some call communitarianism a radical centrist ideology. One of its key ideas is that community defines and shapes individuals. Communities, it says, are an affection-laden web of relationships with shared norms, values, and meanings -- perhaps a shared history or identity. Each of us is embedded in [multiple] societies/contexts not of our making. And individual identity is constructed in these contexts. (It's a bit of the chicken/egg question, and they say that societies come first.) A well-integrated individual is better able to ACT and REASON. 

(I think we see this in our students. Those who are strongly embedded in family and community structures are better off.)

The name Communitarianism may be unfamiliar, but many of its theories have been influential. Notions of "social capital," the idea of public-private partnerships, support for environmental protection, concern about the decline in civil organizations (from bowling leagues to churches) are all associated with Communitarian ideals. 

Its proponents voice concern for atomization of society; they hold that negative rights (such as the the right not to be taxed,or not to be regulated) are secondary to positive rights (e.g. education, housing, clean environment, health care, work). They note that individuals would have no rights if it weren't for society, and therefore the individual has personal responsibility to the community. They see positive rights as a way to strengthen communities.

Communitarianism criticizes leftist ideologies for failing to value local culture and identities; there is a dislike for centralization for its bureaucracy.  They see the welfare state as eroding family bonds. They do support character education.

Interestingly, the earliest Communitarians were British "Chartists" --a workers movement  (1838 -1850). They sought:

-Franchise for men age 21 and older

-The secret ballot

-No property qualifications to run for elective office

-Payment of members of parliament (so people who weren't independently wealthy could hold office)

-One person, one vote

-Annual parliamentary elections with one-year terms (an effort to stem corruption)

Obviously, many of these were eventually adopted, and we take them for granted. 

American philosophers re-discovered (Columbussed?) it in the 1980s. 

And here it is, 2014, and there is much to be considered. Two recent polls found that about 20% of Americans hold Communitarian views, even if they don't call it that.