CF Pages

Monday, May 11, 2015

Are we a nation of strangers?

It is said that a Nation is a community of strangers.

While it remains true that each and every citizen within our Nation may never come to fully get to know each other on a deeper, personal level, we are not a community of strangers. That is my argument.


The one Nation that is ours is a community of communities.

Life here is a gift and a right possessed by both individuals as well as communities.

As individuals here live lives distinct, so do our communities live also.

As individuals have rights, so do our communities possess rights distinct also.


And while it is true that as citizens it is impossible for everybody here in the Nation to connect to each other in stronger, more personal bonds of friendships - each of our communities, we may be assured, know each other. Think about it.

We are individuals within a community of individuals who are themselves individuals within a community of individual communities all of whom fall into the one fold - the Nation.

Interdependent human community.

The strength of our kin and kith ties are all bound up and embraced within a system of "weak ties". This may only become apparent if we dismiss the thought that we are a "nation of strangers" and attempt to understand the life and reality of our national communities.

We, the people, are all - in the Nation - at the very least, "civic acquaintances" - known to each other at the very least, through the life and reality of our particular communities.  

These communities may be tribal, religious, economic or other cause-specific affiliations, private as well as public of whose foundation is inherently our political community and its subdivisions - from barangay, city, province and their particular regions also. 

Each these communities represent us - reflecting many of the things we commonly understand as human beings. As each of our personal "acquaintances" may be developed into full-fledged friendships - so too may the (formal) connections between communities within the Nation be deepened, through the workings of the Republic, to incorporate stronger (informal) bonds and therefore, more effective relationships. 

This I believe is the reason for their many different Leagues and Councils. As an aspect of the term I use - Executive Coherence, this specific dimension is the horizontal dimension - horizontal coherence.
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