Community Alert Area...

I am currently sitting in the garden with a nice cup of coffee, watching the brother's dog manically running around after her ball, while my cranky aul fella sits there eyeing her with the contempt and disdain only a 9-and-a-half year old Cavelier King cross could muster. The wind is whistling gently through the trees, and the clouds' threats appear to be empty thus far. It is a truly peaceful and zen-like experience. Well it would be, apart from the godforsaken alarm screeching at me from across the road, piercing my brain like a searing hot poker. It has been blaring for about thirty minutes now. It's not even a car alarm, it's one of those shrill burglar alarms. Listening to this infernal din has led me to ask myself: does anybody actually take a blind bit of notice of these things? Think about it. Anytime you hear a burglar alarm, or a car alarm, or even a fire alarm going off, do you think twice? Does anyone feel inclined to investigate if they hear the electronic wailing eminating from their neighbour's car/house? I don't think so. Now 9 times out of 10 it's a false alarm anyway. Just the other day, my friend somehow managed to set off a car alarm by sending a text message while walking past it. No seriously. The hypersensitivity of these things is perhaps necessary, but it does lead to a spot of cry wolf syndrome, which leaves them blatantly ignored.

Or is it that we just don't care? That's what I'm currently pondering, as I try in vain to concentrate hard enough on this post that I may enter a trance-like state, thus eliminating the painful racket (it's not working by the way). It brings me back to the individual versus community idea. Coming from a small enough town, where everybody knows everybody and 90% of the population can be traced back to the same two families, I have always tended to rail against the oppression of "community". The thought of small towns and the militant officials of the Curtain Twitching brigade repulses me. It's not so much Big Brother as Mrs Murphy is watching, but at least Big Brother is invisible, therefore can't tut disapprovingly at you while on her way to tell Bridie and Agnes all about your shenanigans. I love the idea of living in cities. I like the anonymity. I am a bit of a lone wolf by nature, valuing my own space and privacy. I like to be left alone to go about my business, and pay the same courtesy to others.

So privacy, anonymity and individualism are a good thing. Thing is, like all good things, you can have too much of it. Yeah we all need space and privacy, some more than others perhaps. However the general consensus about human beings is that we are social creatures, even cantankerous old sods like me. We need other people, a community, to survive. It goes beyond the social aspect. Back to the screeching alarms. Yes it's usually a false alarm, but what if it wasn't? The point is, we generally don't even bother to check. The drawback to being left to go about your business is that you're left to it all the time. Some social conservatives would happily tell us that the idea of community is well and truly dead, thanks to the evils of sex drugs and rock and roll. Nobody gives a damn about anyone else anymore, and we all gladly leave each other to rot, once it doesn't impact on us. While most extreme social conservatives are reactionary and slightly hysterical by their very nature, you have to admit they have a point.

We generally don't care anymore. If we walk down the street and see someone harassing somebody, will we stop to help? Not bloody likely. I remember being in Mass once and reading an article in the newsletter where the priest asked us to go and visit elderly people in the area who would be alone at Christmas. How many of us would actually bother to do such a thing? Very few. We're far too busy, of course. But how much time would it actually take? Even half an hour would probably make some old lady's entire day. Just calling to the door to check in on them would probably suffice. I hate small towns and interfering busybodies as much as, if not more than, the next person. But as with almost everything in life, we are generally in danger of throwing out the baby with the bath water. It doesn't have to be individual versus community; it can be individual and community. We can have our privacy and freedom to live life without interference, and still have time to give five minutes to consider our fellow human beings, surely?