Community?
Ok now many of you long sufferers out there have been exposed to my often vitriolic responses on this subject before but today I got asked why I used a certain wording and the answer comes perilously close to being my total but succinct thoughts on the subject.
As such, I thought it a good thing to put in here.
In this case it is me being polite given the confusion and silliness that goes on in most sentences when that word is used.
While I often find it amusing to hear people use it in conversation when I am pushed on a subject I find it grim that so few would have us all loosely use words that so few even stop to consider the meaning of. I often have recourse to consider:
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/community
and muse on the changeable selectivity of people who champion the word.
"Oo well we want half of that meaning and a wee smidgen of that one but none of this that or the other meanings" ... *shakes head* it does not bode well. This is especially the case when one considers that these same rarely if ever explain what combination they prefer and display the most lamentable propensity to using that as a cover to swap around as the argument seems to warrant. Have a meaning - use it.
So what is mine? Well I am too clever to be pin pointed and use them all as need dictates and highlight my choice by way of context. However that said once I am using one that is the one I am choosing. I will get onto a step by step on the different meanings (and how I don't actually tend to think of them as different!) later when I get a moment.
Don't get me wrong - I am on record as saying I know of many communities and some who serve their constituents well and would imagine it would be wonderful to have one larger loosely cohesive one that served all of the smaller ones. Indeed I was engaged toward this end long before much of what is around today was conceived.
That said, however, when I am told of a cohesive group that by implication shares so much in common that cannot identify itself as such in any way that even approaches uniformity, can not agree on even the simplest supposed shared views and activities or even standards of interpersonal interaction (all of which really are the sort of things that MAKE a community!)
I do start to wonder if what is being referred to actually is one after all - or if it is simply a much smaller cadre insisting it be thought of as larger than it really is. Given the past of the wider pagan/occult/wiccan/neopagan/fill in blank where appropriate movement(s) which demonstrates this propensity to misrepresentation (both unintentional and otherwise) all too clearly ... *shrugs* "alleged" is about as politically correct as I can be.
I do not mean to say that such a beast DOESN'T exist but neither can I say that it actually DOES as what is often referred to does not fulfil the requirements - in much the same way that "Paganism" does not fulfil the requirements to be considered "a religion". I do not call dogs cats or cats dogs and don't think it is helpful to redefine terms in the willy nilly way that seems to be the order of the day in recent years.
Sometimes I also spell it wrong as a witticism (as in ledge - as a play on a place to sit or hang from as opposed to "lege" to play, to rule, to put, to read).. and sometimes simply because I am in a hurry like my famous "teh"! lol
I should think that pretty much covers my view on it - for now at least. *Winks*
As such, I thought it a good thing to put in here.
In this case it is me being polite given the confusion and silliness that goes on in most sentences when that word is used.
While I often find it amusing to hear people use it in conversation when I am pushed on a subject I find it grim that so few would have us all loosely use words that so few even stop to consider the meaning of. I often have recourse to consider:
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/community
and muse on the changeable selectivity of people who champion the word.
"Oo well we want half of that meaning and a wee smidgen of that one but none of this that or the other meanings" ... *shakes head* it does not bode well. This is especially the case when one considers that these same rarely if ever explain what combination they prefer and display the most lamentable propensity to using that as a cover to swap around as the argument seems to warrant. Have a meaning - use it.
So what is mine? Well I am too clever to be pin pointed and use them all as need dictates and highlight my choice by way of context. However that said once I am using one that is the one I am choosing. I will get onto a step by step on the different meanings (and how I don't actually tend to think of them as different!) later when I get a moment.
Don't get me wrong - I am on record as saying I know of many communities and some who serve their constituents well and would imagine it would be wonderful to have one larger loosely cohesive one that served all of the smaller ones. Indeed I was engaged toward this end long before much of what is around today was conceived.
That said, however, when I am told of a cohesive group that by implication shares so much in common that cannot identify itself as such in any way that even approaches uniformity, can not agree on even the simplest supposed shared views and activities or even standards of interpersonal interaction (all of which really are the sort of things that MAKE a community!)
I do start to wonder if what is being referred to actually is one after all - or if it is simply a much smaller cadre insisting it be thought of as larger than it really is. Given the past of the wider pagan/occult/wiccan/neopagan/fill in blank where appropriate movement(s) which demonstrates this propensity to misrepresentation (both unintentional and otherwise) all too clearly ... *shrugs* "alleged" is about as politically correct as I can be.
I do not mean to say that such a beast DOESN'T exist but neither can I say that it actually DOES as what is often referred to does not fulfil the requirements - in much the same way that "Paganism" does not fulfil the requirements to be considered "a religion". I do not call dogs cats or cats dogs and don't think it is helpful to redefine terms in the willy nilly way that seems to be the order of the day in recent years.
Sometimes I also spell it wrong as a witticism (as in ledge - as a play on a place to sit or hang from as opposed to "lege" to play, to rule, to put, to read).. and sometimes simply because I am in a hurry like my famous "teh"! lol
I should think that pretty much covers my view on it - for now at least. *Winks*
posted by BissekArt at 11:46 am
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