I’ve always been interested in how communities work. Like, in the sociological sense: people coming together, more or less spontaneously, to do stuff and support causes and just generally be together. You know, basic human interaction stuff.
I think part of my interest stems from the experience of being very much on the outside during high school. Some kids were popular, some weren’t, and I was very emphatically on the “not popular” side of that line. Like many smart but awkward teenager males, I therefore tried to cultivate an air of dispassion and sneering superiority at the horrible microcosm of society which is the standard high school environment… in short, I was a snotty teenage douchebag. (No wonder I didn’t get invited to parties.) Thankfully, I mostly grew out of it.
But one of the residual effects has always been this interest in how and why people interact the way they do. I find it fascinating, even when I’m one of the people doing the interacting. Or perhaps especially. In any case, the way people self-organize into communities, their contributions to and the demands they make on them, are just plain fascinating — especially when those communities face challenges, doubly so when those challenges come from within, and triply (is that a word?) so when they come from the nominal authorities within the community.
Continue reading “Community and Betrayal”