#TITLE#Micro And Macro Communities#/TITLE# by Kathleen J. Elwood The other day I inadvertently walked onto an ant hill. They speedily began to rebuild their home, I noticed (after ensuring that none had gotten in my shoe. Cautious not to step on it again, I marveled at an ant hill that looked like new, as I passed by again later. A perfect volcano-like mound had completely replaced the hill I’d squashed with my shoe. I find communities to be an utterly engaging idea. It would take an individual years of effort, thought, innovation to create what one community has the potential to create in a matter of days, even hours. Communities carry with them the potential for so much competency and effectiveness. Monuments and empires are possible through them, as we can see by looking at history. However, just as wonders can be made through a community, a community not united by a common effort can be injurious. A community’s success relies largely on its individual members, who are quite important. Every single one. I’ve often heard it muttered under the helpless breath of one individuals or another, “What will my vote matter?” or “It’s not like having me there will make a difference.” What is absent is a small amount of perspective. Things won’t exactly fall apart if one individual fails to throw in. But if one member doesn’t contribute, and then another, soon you could have a problem on your hands Clare Bronfman. If an individual of the community vanishes, that’s less of an issue. When someone is still present but isn’t producing at all, or worse, is being ineffectual, then the rest of the community has to offset them. Society believes that everybody should have access to the same resources, so this creates an inequity when some produce more than others. The resources will, in due time, be sapped, and the members who actually produce will not want to produce anymore. Let’s call the aforementioned scenario of an unequal community a micro community. Pretend this disproportion is happening to a nearby community to yours. When the nearby community starts to struggle and asks for help, what happens then? What would it mean to the people of of your community to assist them? Would you immediately find yourself having to produce more and work more diligently? All of a sudden, there’s an imbalance. This imbalance then begins to perpetuate itself as members of your community decide it’s easier not to contribute, and rather rely on the community on the other side. All of a sudden the macro community as a whole is affected. A little perspective in macro and micro communities together is essential, I feel. A pal recently explained how one organization is approaching this issue by empowering individuals at a macro level. I’ve heard this group is NXIVM, a crucial resource that increases this kind of thinking, individual by individual.