https://www.coxblue.com/5-roadblocks-that-keep-people-from-opening-startups-coxnsbw/

I believe that our society has overreached on “individualism” and lost the balance required with community and spirituality/religion. Individual personal, social and economic liberty are proposed as the primary values in modern/postmodern society by both ends of the simple political spectrum. I think we need a balance, a tension, a higher level, a combination. Individualism alone is insufficient for a “great life”, just as pure “materialism” cannot possibly support a “great life”. I want to explore the reasons why left-leaning people have hesitated to support us finding a new balance.

Only the Individual?

The World is Not Atomistic, Deterministic, Materialistic

Top Scientific Discoveries: Do They Promote Science (Materialism) or Religion (Supernaturalism)?

Benefits of Community

I’ll write a separate blog post to summarize the natural alliance of left-leaning individuals and thinkers with the benefits and essential role of community for society and leading a great life.

Challenges of Community as a Liberal Political Goal

Liberals tend to embrace Care, Equality, Liberty and Proportionality as moral foundations. They are not as interested in purity, loyalty, authority, honor and ownership. At an intuitive level, liberals are more concerned with the individual than the community. This does not reject the “community”, but it requires individuals to overcome their inherent bias towards “either/or” rather than “both/and” thinking to support community as a parallel objective.

Civility: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

The “individual” was created in contrast with the family, clan and tribe, religion, powerful elites, society, civil society, culture, nations, and corporations. Liberals fought for 6 centuries to free the individual from the clutches of these greater groups. Yet, the goal was not to create an isolated individual, but to situate him or her within a community that recognizes their individual choices, values, creativity, worth and results.

Early liberalism embraced reality, reason, logic, experience, and materialism against the prevailing legacy of history, revelation, tradition, supernaturalism, mystery, institutions and culture. Thinking was seen as superior to feeling and the will. Community is essentially soft, floating, spiritual, indescribable, organic, dynamic. Later progressives “turned Hegel on his head”. The romantic, progressive, new left, postmodern versions of liberalism are skeptical of any kind of fixed structure. Community fits in the middle. Some structure, some connectivity.

Liberals mostly embraced increased education, knowledge and progress through history towards a rational, technical, enlightened destination. Community is an old idea and ideal, embraced by most conservatives. Liberals embrace the global, technical, university, media, elite community naturally. Historically, they embraced the community of immigrants, ethnic groups and minorities. Progress is important to liberals, but does not exclude the importance of community as a principle and lived reality.

Social libertarians have sometimes been affiliated with the left. They claim to not reject community.

Conservatives have traditionally supported historical power bases, including various communities and institutions. After Newt Gingrich we live in a polarized political world. Liberals are suspicious of anything offered by the other party. Compassionate conservatism, outsourcing and school choice must be wrong because my opponent promotes them. Liberals are justified in considering power and politics. This does not automatically discount the potential for building stronger communities together with political opponents or using effective suppliers.

Finally, liberals may reject “community” as a second order goal. There are many more important policy areas.

Summary

Liberals cling to the individual and rationality as guideposts for political decisions. We are in a time where “individualism” reigns supreme, supported by liberals socially and conservatives economically. Many dimensions of historical liberalism are opposed to or incongruent with community as a top priority political objective. Yet, liberalism aspires to the very best understanding of man, God and nature. Community is an essential part of the good life.

We live in “a secular age”. Absolute certainty is clearly an illusion. And yet, per Indy native Kurt Vonnegut, “so it goes”. I implore liberals to overcome their historical struggles with a powerful opponent. The past is gone. We face a world of great challenges. How can “community” help us all to live a great life?

How (NOT) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor

All Things Shining: A Secular Age Solution?