Internal Mono(b)log

Over the years I’ve been involved with several large groups of people that referred to themselves, sometimes loosely, as being a community. Some of these groups have been very functional, others… well.. not so much.

Each of the communities I’ve belonged to, for whatever period of time, has always had a strong unifying bond. Church groups, pseudo-military, music lovers/ravers, etc. all have a central theme that forms the core focus of the group. With many of those groups, when the focus is gone, there is little else in common. The thread holding the people together is gone, and so are they.

Now it may not be the case that the thread of continuity for the community has gone, but perhaps that the individuals decide to detach themselves from the thread. Perhaps their individual interests change or mature over time, perhaps they just outgrow the organization they were a part of. In either case, that thin thread of community isn’t enough to keep them and they move on, leaving the community behind. I have friends who refer to a community we left as a “communicable” because it’s more like a flu-bug than a functioning, healthy, spirit-full community. Funny and sad.

I’ve recently tripped across a group in Toronto called the Freespace Collective. A group of anarchists (anti-current-corrupt-establishment, not disassociative-anarchy) who organize (underground) Techno parties around Toronto. Certainly there’s the music thread at their core; however, they are trying to expand their thread of community into more than their initial reason d’être. Another group in the Toronto area, Sumkidz, are doing the same. Music is the core that brought them together, but they’re aiming to be more. To take the thread of focus that started the community and weave it into a tapestry that is rich and diverse.

These groups, I believe, have figured something out: a Community is not like a motorcycle club, where there is a single focus that unites its members. Rather, a Community is rich with unities on all different levels. A Community cannot bind itself to a single thread, a single ideal or a single person. Those that do are bound to crumble over time. A Community has to be diverse, flexible and constantly growing.

I said a long time ago: Anything that doesn’t grow is subject to decay. I wish these groups and others like them continued growth and success.