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This crystallizes something I've been thinking for a while. A major source of community in the past has been religious groups. What makes membership in a church

by gxon 7y ago

This crystallizes something I've been thinking for a while. A major source of community in the past has been religious groups. What makes membership in a church great at establishing community line up very closely with your 6 points. But as religion continues it's slow death, it's not been clear what replaces this important role of building community in our society. Hobby groups/clubs is at least one of the answers. My own hobby of mountaineering and climbing is very similar to yours of BJJ. Religion is basically just a glorified shared interest club that you're born into. Something I haven't seen talked much about is how we financially support these types of groups. A lot of clubs either rely exclusively on volunteer effort and therefore are very fragile or high membership fees (like BJJ studios) that are out of reach for most people.

bitexploder 7y ago
Yeah... BJJ is not a perfect solution, but it is a real community and we try to be very inclusive. So, if someone truly can't afford the fees, they can often teach classes or do a certain number of hours of work around the gym cleaning up after class, etc. Churches and large community gatherings foster a sense of "we are in this together". It is the oldest social safety net in the books probably, where you know when you are a part of this group, even if you fall on hard times, these people are here for you. BJJ is the same way. In a visceral way, like if shit is going down, I know these guys and gals have my back, but also in a community sense of if I am ever hungry, there are people who will help me out. It is definitely a challenge in modern society. I am not sure the mega-church style community needs "replacing" so much as people need to really buy into the concept of their place of residence as a genuine community and not just a bunch of silo'd off individuals. Of course politics and government policy does a lot to encourage/discourage this at a macro level (fostering segmentation in the population and outright disdain for our neighbors, who happen to be poor, etc... but that is a whole different discussion).

by gxon 7y ago

bitexploder 7y ago

Yeah... BJJ is not a perfect solution, but it is a real community and we try to be very inclusive. So, if someone truly can't afford the fees, they can often teach classes or do a certain number of hours of work around the gym cleaning up after class, etc. Churches and large community gatherings foster a sense of "we are in this together". It is the oldest social safety net in the books probably, where you know when you are a part of this group, even if you fall on hard times, these people are here for you. BJJ is the same way. In a visceral way, like if shit is going down, I know these guys and gals have my back, but also in a community sense of if I am ever hungry, there are people who will help me out. It is definitely a challenge in modern society. I am not sure the mega-church style community needs "replacing" so much as people need to really buy into the concept of their place of residence as a genuine community and not just a bunch of silo'd off individuals. Of course politics and government policy does a lot to encourage/discourage this at a macro level (fostering segmentation in the population and outright disdain for our neighbors, who happen to be poor, etc... but that is a whole different discussion).