Social Artifacts
The social compact is being threatened by an increasing divisiveness. This polarizes us, but more importantly, depersonalizes us from our neighbor. Kindled by a materialistic fallacy, society seems to have surrendered to the notion of isolation. Yet, through my experiences in various cultures, I realize the value of diversity, tolerance, understanding, and social-environmental connection. If we can apply these principles to larger society, we may heal some of this division. My life has been a tale of five cultures, each playing a part in shaping my definition of true community. The most formative one is Argentina. My Chilean mother fled to Argentina as child to escape the dictator Pinochet. She grew up in Mendoza; a city on the edge of the
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Initially, we lived in an area that was more minority, transient, and economically struggling, and later, in a more affluent and white location, with “neighbors” in name only. Despite the dichotomy, we discovered a pocket of community in our school. Even though it was the least expensive private school in town, it was still beyond the means of many of my peers. I saw my classmates work so hard to be worthy of their parents’ dreams and their struggle to afford this education. Struggle might be defined by the hardship of the individual, but community is defined by the success of the whole¬—and my school was a community. But my grandmother was sick, and we moved to Columbus. This is a complete community, so connected with nature and still so in touch with other, where the wide diversity of opinion does not hinder communal efforts for progressive change— the Argentine reciprocal
Building a community that combines the diversity of my Arizona grade school, the tolerance absent in Brighton, the understanding of the Argentine culture, and the environmental and social connection of my Columbus home may sound quixotic. And it is, for just an individual. But community means shared. Thus, to build true community requires a shared effort, a cohesive cultural shift. The burden of my generation is to build a society not based solely on self-interest, but with the desire to prioritize the whole. As we do this, we mend these divisions— we fulfill the common
Initially, we lived in an area that was more minority, transient, and economically struggling, and later, in a more affluent and white location, with “neighbors” in name only. Despite the dichotomy, we discovered a pocket of community in our school. Even though it was the least expensive private school in town, it was still beyond the means of many of my peers. I saw my classmates work so hard to be worthy of their parents’ dreams and their struggle to afford this education. Struggle might be defined by the hardship of the individual, but community is defined by the success of the whole¬—and my school was a community. But my grandmother was sick, and we moved to Columbus. This is a complete community, so connected with nature and still so in touch with other, where the wide diversity of opinion does not hinder communal efforts for progressive change— the Argentine reciprocal
Building a community that combines the diversity of my Arizona grade school, the tolerance absent in Brighton, the understanding of the Argentine culture, and the environmental and social connection of my Columbus home may sound quixotic. And it is, for just an individual. But community means shared. Thus, to build true community requires a shared effort, a cohesive cultural shift. The burden of my generation is to build a society not based solely on self-interest, but with the desire to prioritize the whole. As we do this, we mend these divisions— we fulfill the common