What is the meaning of civic membership? Most of us have some experience with membership. We are members of families, associations, teams, religious communities, and so on. We became members of some of these groups by birth or tradition, and some by choice. In either case, active membership entails at least three things: having a connection with the story or narrative that gives members an identity, consenting to the member’s key values, and participating in the activities of the members. These characteristics of membership, of course, do not eliminate disagreement and controversy. Just the opposite; they provide a shared platform for dealing with disagreement. So what is the civic story?
In memory of W. Barnett Pearce
A commonsense way of thinking about disagreements is that they arise when people have opposing opinions, they have an invested interest in maintaining them, and they have to make a decision. In this framework, our positions are seen as things we own—as our property.
If there is an ounce of truth in the idea of American exceptionalism, it is our exceptional disdain for negative thinking. In fact, the only thing one should be negative about is negative thinking. But what is negative thinking: the opposite of positive thinking? Isn’t it the case that positive and negative thinking belong together, and when they are separated, we move ourselves from the concrete circumstances in which we live to the abstract ideas into which we escape?
Suppose you have your hand holding a rope that is attached to a dog’s collar, and you follow the dog as it wanders down a path. From a bird’s eye view, it looks like the dog is guiding you. One of the better understandings of the word “god” is that it refers to whatever is guiding us, such as happiness, wealth, power, recognition, or even fear. The problem, of course, is when talk about “god” prevents us from knowing where we are really going. So how can we tell if your “god” is in need of serious repair? Here are a few telltale signs:
“Disintegrity” affects much of our social, political, and economic life, and until we have a picture of what it looks like, an accurate analysis of what causes it, and a way to find relief from it, our future looks pretty bleak. It actually takes different forms, can infect almost any conversation, and is sometimes quite resistant to change. The greatest threat of disintegrity today is that people take it as normal. So the first step is to recognize its existence.
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