A Definition of Community with Which Statists Would Be Pleased

A community exists between a people, not between strangers.

Junger is wrong on this score:

Yeah, I mean, so first of all like the idea of banning the car, I was speaking very theoretically like if there were no cars, the communities would regain some vibrancy. But I’m suggesting we do that. I don’t think it’s feasible. But you as sort of a mental experiment, I think that would probably do it. So what I find is that people have a real longing to feel like they belong to something and they say the phrase, I'm looking. I haven't found my tribe yet. Which means you’re not going to…I mean, if you’re looking for tribe, your tribe is around you. Your tribe is your community.

You might say that there are people with sort of similar interests. Like say your sports fans or whatever. That’s different from your community and sometimes they word tribe and community get conflated. They’re actually somewhat different things. So I think the safe way to talk about it is, when you look out the window, the people that you…the houses that you see and the people that you see, that’s your community. And those are the people you need to connect with. Even if you might have more in common with people that live across town just because you’re part of a kite flying club or something or whatever.

But it’s the people around you in the neighborhood that are your community. Communities are really different, and I don’t know how to…I can't give you a sort of one-size-fits-all like how to create and bond in a community. But you have to…I think a crisis will immediately spur sort of community commitment by people. So you have to figure out how to create that commitment without a crisis and I don't quite know how to do that. I think it’s a real problem. I think people are reluctant to do it, when they don’t need to. Hold on one more second. They just had to test it. So I honestly don't know what the solution is and I'm not sure there really is a very good one.