Society & Culture

What are your observations on society and where it’s headed?

Society & Culture

Posted by: Rainbow

16th May 2011 01:27pm

Have we evolved into a narcissistic society, as the media have alleged? Do you think the importance of manners and etiquette is less essential? If you live in a country or regional area, is there more of a community spirit and comrade in your district? I really would love to hear your opinions on this issue so please do share your thoughts.

Stix
  • 17th May 2011 12:45pm

I live in a tiny country town in north-east Victoria but I have lived in Melbourne and other capital cities in my time. I would suggest that there is definitely a greater sense of community in the country and people are more likely to live up to their social responsibility to one another because in a small community you cannot hide amongst the crowd. You are identifiable and everyone knows who you are and what you do. Country communities thrive on a sense of isolation that compells them to bond together and work to help each other and achieve their goals.
There are still great people doing selfless things in the city but they are fewer and further between and tend to be older, with a more established sense of community. It is far to easy to become self-centric in the city. These days there seems to be an increase in people going out to work and then racing home to their private enclaves which with their families, become their entire focus. People have beautiful homes, theatre rooms, McMansions, amazing gardens and kitchens but only share themselves and their prosperity with themselves and their immediate friends.
I think it would be interesting to know how many people in the city actually know their immediate neighbours names? I would imagine it's probably about 5% but I am pulling numbers from mid-air. I would imagine in the country that it is closer to 95%. Perhaps a survey could give us some real data?
The trouble in the city is that it is too easy to hide amongst the masses and potentially dangerous to involve yourself with strangers so people just keep their heads down and move along. While it's possible to live like that in the country, it's much harder because you often need the help of others, whether you are dealing with natural disasters like bushfires or more immediate drama's like having a car out of commission and no public transport. You need others to help you in these situations and this fosters that sense of community and forms a bond that feeds itself exponentially. The entire community becomes your circle of acquaintences - there is nowhere to hide. It is exactly this attitude that made me decide to live in the country and raise my family despite the economic hardships we suffer as a result of lower living standards and employment rates etc. Infact the mutually shared hardships form a stronger bond amongst the locals and help us to identify with one another. The disparity in personal circumstances in a large city just enforces the sense of isolation from one another and leads to an attitude that is automatically less community minded and more ego-centric. At least that's my opinion, for what it's worth!


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