It Takes a Village
The story of success today is the individual’s story, not the collectives’. Social interaction through technology, expectations of high productivity and other lifestyle patterns have created individualistic concepts of progress. In fact, it is believed that many individuals’ successes together will lead to the collective success – take for example the “trickle down effect” that one expects with economic growth. In the race to individual success, many get left behind. To create more equality, a shift in perspective is required where the community and the collective is prioritised as an entity. As the old Nigerian Igbo proverb goes “It takes a village to raise a child” – so let’s focus on strengthening the village for the children of tomorrow.
Nature versus Nurture: If it’s all genes, then isn’t it the natural order to focus on the individual?
The debate over what impacts an individual more, nature versus nurture, rages on today. Take the example of the documentary Three Identical Strangers on Netflix which followed the story of a set of triplets who learn about each other’s existence accidentally, as an adult. Even while there were many genetic predispositions that all of the brothers shared, they concluded that nurture is more important. In psychology, a person’s childhood speaks to many things about their personality as an adult from trauma affecting brain development, parental attachment styles affecting adult romantic relationships to learned racism from teachers. So even as nature is important, it our community that creates us.
But isn’t “Community” simply a collection of individuals?
Yes, and no. There is a short article that explores how ‘community’ has a multitude of meanings – this article focuses on the definition that comes closest to ‘ecology’ which includes the concept of interdependence. There community is the interdependence of individuals.
In the first The Michelle Obama Podcast, she and President Barack Obama talk about how they grew up in a community where if they did something wrong, a fellow adult neighbour would have the right to discipline the child. Similarly, my friend in India spoke about being scolded by her aunt when she did something wrong and her parents not overturning that disciplining; something that I, haven grown up in a nuclear family, could not imagine. There were and continue to be a lot of issues in India related to joint families and collective values because of sexist, casteist, classist and discriminatory expectations which I won’t get into (but must be addressed). In a way, to combat unequal expectations based in collective values, India has become increasingly individualistic. And it’s not just India.
“More and more people start thinking in terms of me…and then ‘if I am successful enough, then I can be self-sufficient and my family can be self-sufficient’. Of course, the challenge is that that kind of set up creates this huge separation between people, between economic levels.”
President Barack Obama, The Michelle Obama Podcast, 29 July 2020
Our current world celebrates individual success, not the communities’. In South Sudan, it is expected that if you are economically successful, then you would support your village. Two generations ago, it was similar for my grandfather. Think about the mother in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. She shared whatever little she had with the family down the street; teaching her children that that was natural. It’s easier to think about the fact that this was possible in a world that was less mobile and more offline. But it is not simply about the physical act of sharing or economic support to others in the community. It is the underlying value of the individual success faring higher than the community’s.
Reimagination of the Post-COVID World: A Case for more Collective Values
Warren Buffet and other billionaires have pledged to give a portion of their wealth for the betterment of society. However, we should not be relying only on individual giving as a way to create collective good. It’s time to imagine better public institutions as the ‘community’ that supports people on the path to success. Welfare in the United States is viewed as handout and is becoming increasingly so in India. However, public services like free healthcare, financial assistance for unemployment, homeless shelters, safe public spaces should not be viewed as paternalistic but rather through a rights-based approach.
It seems far-fetched or even quaint to think of measuring a country’s success in anything other than GDP and other traditional economic statistics. But New Zealand’s well-being budget or Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index are model examples of change. Approaches like inclusive city which harps on safer spaces, community gardens, less gated communities and gentrification is based on the communal values rather that individual ones. With that, the “othering” may also reduce which could lead to intercommunal harmony.
Look online and you will find several articles talking about how we are more connected in today’s age yet feel more alone. The pandemic has worsened these feelings of isolation. While we may not be able to make changes overnight to reduce feeling of loneliness, prioritising values of care, love, kindness while putting the community at the centre (without alienating or overshadowing the individual) may be where we need to walk towards when we think of success.