the other thing is community. and the thing about community is that it's kind of backwards. when you think of a "community," you probably think about a group of many people. and while a community can be comprised of many people, most groups are based around 
geography instead of shared interest. think of cities. there may be smaller communities and groups dwelling within cities, plenty of them i'm sure. but the city as a whole is not really a "community." they don't all know each other by name. they don't always 
smile to each other. but who blames anyone for not being able to recognize the face of hundreds of thousands of people scattered across many square miles of space, and not having enough endurance in the face muscles to always be smiling? in a society based around 
community - that is, knowing and caring about everyone around you, the city as we know it would not exist. and many of the problems of the city would not exist, either. i firmly believe that in these small communities, law enforcement would be unnecessary. 
there are many small self-governing or essentially self-governing communities all around the world. when i began to research some of these societies i was very surprised about the lack of crime. but it makes sense - when you only have so many people living in the 
same place, it's much easier to make sure that everyone has what they need - food, water, shelter, mental health resources, etc. people rely on each other to refrain from crime for the good of the community, and for the sake of their relationships with the 
people therein. the city is an attempt at creating an efficient, communal life, but quickly loses the core attributes of a community as soon as the apartment complexes go up and walmart starts moving in. history shows that the human instinct to form communities 
will never leave us, and so new cities will always be going up, uprooting the tree called genuine human connection in the process. now, cities are not all bad, just as the country is not all good - i've seen many miles of each, and both of them are 
relentlessly human. but it seems to me that there are two extremes, isolation and urbanization, and at the end of each is loneliness.<br>
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that isn't to say that the ideal life lies in the exact center of that spectrum. suburbanization is one of the most socially destructive plagues in the history of mankind - however, that's just what i think. annette peacock wisely remarks, "any resolution must come 
from the personal revolution." not every country town is kind and not every city is hostile. it depends on where you are - physically, mentally, emotionally. but no matter what, humans seek connection. we need to get out there and see for oursleves what community
is all about. community can be done anywhere - personally, i would prefer to live in a place where every moment i spend i am surrounded by my community.<br>
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however, i do not know where i will live and i do not know who i will be surrounded by in the future. sometimes it feels like a love of music vs. a love of people. but i hope that no matter where i choose to live, it can be both.