The Community in America free essay sample

Discusses the nature of community in America as examined by various essayists in THE BEDFORD READER. Argues that community is not has never been an important factor in US society. The community is seen as an endangered institution and as an institution under attack. Many see our sense of both family and community as disappearing in the face of new technologies and social pressures. It is clear that neither the family nor the community were ever the rock-solid institutions they have been made out to be. Indeed, even the definition of community is often uncertain, and how this is defined helps decide whether it is healthy or damaging, thriving or disappearing. A number of the essays in The Bedford Reader address problems with the meaning of community, its health, and its potential. Scott Russell Sanders notes how the cult of the individual developed in American society and how this has come to celebrate drifters, loners, and rebels, those separated from family and community, each of which is reviled as an anchor holding back the ,,