Since the very earliest days of mankind, we have lived in communities?

Question

It is obvious that the nature of this has to change as the population grows.
Do you feel it has changed so much that it is no longer applicable to us in a personal sense, or do you have a strong sense of belonging to a community?

Answer 1

Humans are social creatures, up to the extended family group. We naturally cope with our family ties and close friends that have been adopted in to the family group. This is the basis of the tribal social structure.

As social structures have increased in size, rules of society have been laid down through religion or secular ethics. These rules are what keep our selfishness in check and allow us to work within a larger society. This in turn allows us the increase in specialisation and technology we enjoy today. When the rules aren't followed and ignored, then we have social breakdown.

Humans can not easily cope with the demands of very large communities - like cities. At best, they break up in to smaller communities (e.g a street or district), or they isolate themselves. The city is not a natural social group for us, we have to work at maintaining relationships all the time. Hence, city life being stressful.

Answer 2

That's a really interesting question. I don't think you can ever get rid of that primal need to belong to a community; it's as basic as our biology. But it does have some very good and very bad side effects as you start to increase the size of the community. For example, individuals still have a tendency to act morally and ethically, even in large communities. But the larger the community, the less ethically the group as a whole often acts.

Peace to you.