The Decay of Society

I grew up during the seventies and early eighties in a rural area of The Ozarks (as if there were urban areas in the Ozarks).  When I say rural, I mean the nearest McDonald's was 40 miles away.  My cousin, who ran a business with her husband, was unable to get a dedicated phone line until recently.  We did not lock our doors at night.  We didn't even lock the house when we left, even if we were gone for days.  In fact, I don't remember ever using a key on our door lock.  When we drove to town (12 miles away), we didn't lock our car doors or even take the keys out.  It was very common in that area to buy a vehicle and leave the ignition key in for the entire time you owned it.  The thought was that it made no sense to take the key out since you'll just have to put it back in when you're ready to go again; why take a chance on losing or forgetting it?

How could this kind of trust exist?  Easy; there were no strangers, no anonymity.  Any would be thief would have to avoid being identified by anyone in the area, which in most cases would be impossible.  It wasn't as extreme as the cliche':  "Everybody knows everybody else".  However, it may as well have been.

Imagine the scenario:  person A decides to steal a car from a parking lot where the owner has carelessly left the keys in the ignition.  He/she might as well choose the nicest car because all the cars have the keys in them.  The problem for the thief begins as soon as an approach to the vehicle is attempted.  Anyone in the area would most likely know the potential thief, the owner of the car in question and whether or not it would be unusual for that person to be approaching/entering the owner's vehicle.  Even if someone was able to take the vehicle, they would then have to leave the area without being identified.  Not an easy task, even at night since the one policeman on duty would be perched nearby watching for just this kind of activity.  A thief would have to leave with the vehicle in a direction that would not arouse suspicion and not be recognized by just about every person they pass on the way out of town and for at least a 20 mile radius past that.  I remember being able to identify who drove by our house by the sound of the vehicle.  And I could very often identify which family member was driving the vehicle by how it was being driven.

Change the scenario.  the person is a stranger in town.  A close eye is kept on even the most honorable person if they aren't known in the community.

Take it a step further and assume someone was somehow able to steal a truck and leave town without being noticed (highly unlikely).  Now they have to get out of the area without raising the suspicions of every person in every vehicle and every house near the road they pass for the next hour.  A difficult undertaking indeed.  Even though these people were essentially unsuspecting and remarkably unparanoid, the town would have gone on full alert if at the drop of a hat if something as exciting as a theft had taken place.  A quick call to the local police would facilitate road blocks in every direction out of town and neighbors calling neighbors spreading the APB to practically every square foot of the countryside.  I can't remember a single occurrence of automobile theft in all the years I spent there.

I think my astute readers get the point.  The idea I'm trying to convey is that community equals security.  Anonymity equals danger and instability.

Another example:  In the summer of my 5th year, I and the girl next door who was about my age decided we were running away from home.  Our destination was the local telephone facility, a brick building with no windows and most likeley, a locked door.  It was probably half a mile away around a curve in the road.  We set out on our journey with no provisions of any kind.  We managed to get just beyond the curve out of sight of our houses when we were spotted by a neighbor who stopped immediately to ask us where we were going.  Being five, we had no reason to believe we were supposed to try to disguise our intentions and freely provided our destination and purpose.  To our surprise, she quickly collected us in her car and delivered us home.  Imagine this same chain of events in an urban setting.  Granted, our parents would probably have kept a closer watch on us but that enhances my point, they didn't have to because they had the help of the entire community without asking for it.  I later found this somewhat frustrating.  My father had bought me a small motorcycle when I was eight.  My instructions were to be home by dark and stay off the paved roads.  I tried dilligently to obey the former directive but found the latter too much of a hindrance and would occasionally commit violations.  Invariably, a full report of the crime would beat me home.

Why have we permitted this to erode away?  Community isn't something the government can or has taken away from us.  Each of us has the ability, motive and opportunity to increase the stability and security of our neighborhood, community, city, county and for that matter, the entire nation and world.

What sinister purpose would stand a chance against the onslaught of familiarity that would result from people getting to know each other in their communities.  World peace is not impossible.  How can you say something is impossible when it hasn't even been attempted?  Race, religion, nationality; these are just artificial categories we use to differentiate ourselves.  I use the word "differentiate", not "divide".  I see no reason that we should all live by the same creed or religious system or under the same government.  Differentiation is good; division is bad.

What is the reason for racism, bigotry and prejudice?  "Well", you're saying, "there are lots of reasons." WRONG!!!  There is only one reason for any negative behavior, thought or feeling:  FEAR!!  Mr. Roosevelt gave us possibly the greatest revelation of history.  "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  We, the individuals, the people, can achieve world peace ourselves without the help of governments and treaties by simply observing the customs of a community at the individual level.  When disputes happen (and they will), they can be resolved at the lowest level with the highest degree of civility.  Sound like a pipe dream?  It's not.  Consider how people behave in our society now.  We exercize anonymity.  We isolate ourselves from the world in our cars, houses and offices.  We transact business anonymously over the internet, with credit cards and in department stores that have no idea who we are and do not share our concern for our community.

To expound on a previous post, big cities, big government and big business tend to proliferate anonymity, thereby reducing our security, increasing the level of fear which leads to every, not most, every form of crime.