Loddfafner
11-02-2009, 08:30 PM
The quality of our life boils down to the quality of places where we actually live our lives. Most political thinking makes one of two mistakes. Either it is oriented toward individuals and their immediate choices (Scylla), or towards vague abstractions such as one's race or nation (Charybdis). Our choices, and, the resources at our disposal, are only meaningful in the context of place-specific situations, while the big picture is a composite of those situations.
I spent many years in a smallish town where there was very little to do except complain about it. The bars were awful as were organizations and just about any sort of hangout. Instead of complaining I thought I would do something productive. I started clubs, and I threw parties.
The places I built were not perfect for everyone. I became a target for the armies of whiners. At parties where I played music to accommodate everyone's tastes, I was constantly attacked for playing music somebody disliked at that moment, not caring that I had just played something for them earlier. I burnt out and stopped going out on limbs for the community only to have them sawed off by the people I was doing it for.
Good places don't just happen automatically except in very rare cases. Many work as businesses but see how commercial bars have been degraded. In the US, alcohol laws have led to the demise of places where people under 21 can learn from those of legal age. See how many of our cultural outlets have been bought up by large corporations. Alternatives to mass culture require enthusiastic volunteers and generous donors to really work. Volunteers who put themselves out in building their communities tend to attract shrill sniping about how they are not perfect enough. Whether its a psychological or sociological phenomenon, all the whiners achieve is a bleaker world dominated by Hollywood. They will wait in vain for perfect leaders to emerge and save them from their dreary lives.
I have no patience for them and call upon them to give more respect to those who take the risks of building workable places that add to our options and nourish those who spend some time there.
I lift my mead-horn and toast the placemakers.
I spent many years in a smallish town where there was very little to do except complain about it. The bars were awful as were organizations and just about any sort of hangout. Instead of complaining I thought I would do something productive. I started clubs, and I threw parties.
The places I built were not perfect for everyone. I became a target for the armies of whiners. At parties where I played music to accommodate everyone's tastes, I was constantly attacked for playing music somebody disliked at that moment, not caring that I had just played something for them earlier. I burnt out and stopped going out on limbs for the community only to have them sawed off by the people I was doing it for.
Good places don't just happen automatically except in very rare cases. Many work as businesses but see how commercial bars have been degraded. In the US, alcohol laws have led to the demise of places where people under 21 can learn from those of legal age. See how many of our cultural outlets have been bought up by large corporations. Alternatives to mass culture require enthusiastic volunteers and generous donors to really work. Volunteers who put themselves out in building their communities tend to attract shrill sniping about how they are not perfect enough. Whether its a psychological or sociological phenomenon, all the whiners achieve is a bleaker world dominated by Hollywood. They will wait in vain for perfect leaders to emerge and save them from their dreary lives.
I have no patience for them and call upon them to give more respect to those who take the risks of building workable places that add to our options and nourish those who spend some time there.
I lift my mead-horn and toast the placemakers.