Tag: Tractatus
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Forest Rangers in Community
A kind of entity that may exist in a community: one that sees its role as developing the capacity of the community to address shared problems and opportunities. Note that the role is developmental, and not focused on execution. There are a myriad of entities in any locale that are working directly on projects. This…
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A Theory of Community
Human beings are innately social. We live together in groups. Living together brings a number of benefits: we can protect ourselves, we can pool resources, we can find safety when vulnerable due to illness, we can raise children, we can better shelter ourselves from elements. These things motivate our group life. In part, they…
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Rising, Walking, Civic Deserts
A friend tells the story of a time he was seriously injured and ended up in the hospital. He was bedridden for a long time and was going to have to work very hard just to walk again. At one point, his doctors cleared him to try to move around. But they were concerned he…
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Many Ways to Express Citizenship
Many ways to express citizenship, an incomplete list (add your ideas): Read reputable news outlets Examine the sources of news that you come into contact with Read news outlets you disagree with Read LOCAL news outlets Talk with a friend or family member about their views; share yours Attend civic and community meetings Vote Encourage…
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Machinebrain, Gardenbrain, Forestbrain
Some of my friends may have heard me refer to “machinebrain” and “gardenbrain” in conversation over the past few months. This idea is taken from Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer’s The Gardens of Democracy, in which they argue that a new way of thinking about social systems needs to be developed. Liu and Hanauer contrast a…
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Complementary Production and the Village of Hawk Creek
The story of Tom Newman and the Village of Hawk Creek gives a good example of “complementary production” (the kind I was trying to describe here). There is a man, Tom Newman, in Cleveland, Tennessee who has spent years slowly gathering five frontier log cabins to his property and turning it into a kind of museum: Over a…
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On Hyperpolarization
I was recently asked to respond to the question, “What trends have you been seeing in democracy?” I thought I might share my response more broadly. One of the core experiences when it comes to democracy in the U.S. context is the effect of hyperpolarization. This is a pathology that goes beyond simple ”partisanship” (which…
Brad Rourke 