Communitarian Letter #35
Question: British elections and communitarianism
Now, Muscular Communitarianism
Washington Unlocked--For the Rich
What Would You Do In Afghanistan?
How Loneliness Spreads
New Website for Communitarians
Volunteer Opportunities
Summer Internships with ICPS
Meister Eckhart Prize
Good Reads
Upcoming Events
Endorsements
Question: The British election campaign finds both main parties competing over who is more communitarian. The Tories call for setting up cooperatives of teachers, nurses, and others to take over some of the missions of civil servants. The co-ops will be funded by the state and held to national standards. Labour says that this plan is its idea and calls it mutualism. Are there any applications for other societies?
Please email your comments to .
Now, Muscular Communitarianism
The time for muscular communitarianism has come. In his second year, President Obama best reveal that his communitarianism is not powerless, but indeed has muscles of its own, although these have so far been rarely exercised.
The president has gone the extra mile to show that he is willing to talk, consult, and collaborate with allies and foes alike -- foreign and domestic. Nor has this form of kumbaya communitarianism been without results. Russiais supporting sanctions against Iran. The fever of anti-Americanism overseas has subsided .
But, all said and done, Obama's soft communitarianism has yielded relatively little. Iran continues to thumb its nose at his solicitations; the GOP is mocking it; and the business elites are paying out their bonuses using taxpayer dollars, as if Obama never railed against them. Obama can maintain his positive posture, continue to refuse to hector nations whose regimes are different from ours, and even keep extending an olive branch to the business elites. But he would be much more effective if he would show that communities whose norms and leaders are ignored can—once in a blue moon—twist the arms of, even give a kick in the pants to, those who refuse to do good
To read the rest, go here.
Washington Unlocked--For the Rich
The cliché that Washington is deadlocked and dysfunctional is only partially true. Congress and Obama get done those things favored by lobbies with deep pockets that have their hooks into both the GOP and a fair number of Democrats. Thus, despite all the hullabaloo about deficits, the government is about to provide $8.33 billion in loan guarantees to the nuclear industry, which adds to government liabilities, and hence increases the deficit.
Congress -- which so far has done extremely little to provide for new financial regulation -- has found the time to dilute accounting rules that govern the banks, "improving" their balance sheets, which sows the seeds for the next financial crisis -- or the next round of the current one. And Congress seems ready to move to allow offshore oil drilling after Obama's signal to this effect during his State of the Union.
This political set up also predicts where the new commission on deficit reduction is headed: major cuts in the outlays and benefits for the masses, and few tax increases for the rich. You heard it here first.
Liberals like to dream about a pendulum, in which the United States swings from conservative eras to liberals ones and back. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was the main scholar who helped formulate this vision. Actually the United States since the 1970s is going through shorter and shorter -- and weaker! -- liberal intervals, and longer and stronger conservative periods. The liberals can complain all they want, but until they get together and form a united front, a shared agenda, and a social movement to back it up, they should be ready for another bout of market forces intervening in the government -- while complaining about government interference in the market.
By Amitai Etzioni, originally published on the Huffington Post, here.
What Would You Do In Afghanistan?
The good news is that finally the American troops in Afghanistan are increasingly working with the tribal militias—rather than relying on the corrupt, illegitimate, hapless "national" government, an American artifact (See The New York Times Nov. 22, 2009). The bad news is that the Pentagon is still investing most of its resources—and trainers—in the national army, instead of shifting many of these assets to tribal forces. Note that tribal forces won the war in Afghanistan to begin with (the Northern Alliance) and that most Afghans’ first loyalty is to their ethnic community (loosely called tribes) and not to the nation-state.
Obama should stick to his limited security goals—making Afghanistan not more likely to harbor terrorists than, say, Yemen and Somalia, other countries we do not occupy. He should walk away from recent tendencies to engage in nation building. There is no way on earth we can provide the Afghan people with jobs (we are not doing that well at home!), efficient government services, and a low level of corruption.
For more discussion, go here.
How Loneliness Spreads
Studies have shown that loneliness can have numerous adverse effects on health, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, and a weakened immune system. Now, a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has analyzed the formation and transmission of loneliness and found that loneliness forms in clusters of people: once one person in a social network begins to experience and express loneliness, others in this social network are more likely to start to feel lonely as well. Researches reason that loneliness causes one to interact negatively with other people, people who are then likely to interact negatively with still more people.
The Economist, December 12, 2009.
New Website for Communitarians
The American Assn. for the Furtherance of Community hold that just as human individuals cannot become human alone, so also communities cannot become fully humane without meaningful sharing with other communities. The association runs the Goodenough Community, a project that involves facilitating communities around the world to be in direct communication with each other at several levels. They hope tofacilitate a Village Without Walls—a world-wide communitarian association that disseminates worthy ideas and effective processes—through a website that is to be published on the internet July 2010. This will be found at The current website for the Goodenough Community system is
Volunteer Opportunities
The CologneVolunteerCenter was founded in 1997 to foster civil engagement in the city of Cologne. They provide information for individuals and companies seeking to volunteer in their communities, support for volunteer organizations, and an international volunteer exchange program for young people. For those located in or near Cologne, this organization may be a useful resource.
For more information visit
Summer Internships with ICPS
The Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at The George Washington University, the nation's leading center for communitarian policy research, is looking to fill two summer intern positions. Interns willwork with staff to provide research and outreach support to the Institute and may serve any time during the summer months. Some stipends will be available. The principal duties and responsibilities will be to:
(a) assist with outreach efforts, including researching potential contacts, gathering emails, and assisting with mailings;
(b) assist with the maintenance of databases and websites;
(c) undertake research into the wide variety of issues for the Institute’s papers and for the Institute’s online content;
(d) undertake other related activities assigned by the Institute.
Applicants must be workingtoward a Bachelor’s degree in international relations, political science, history, sociology, or a related field, have strong Microsoft Office and Internet skills, strong writing and research skills, and be fluent in English. Please send a resume and cover letter to Radhika Bhat if interested.
Meister Eckhart Prize
Amitai Etzioni was awarded the Meister Eckhart scientific achievement prize by the Identity Foundation of Cologne, Germany, on December 9, 2009. Previous honorees include Levi Strauss, Amartya Sen, and Richard Rorty. He was also awarded an honorary degree from the University of Cologne. For more information, please go here.
Good Reads
Hans Joas and Wolfgang Knöbl have written Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures.This book offers a unique overview of the development of social theory from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the present day. It provides an excellent background to the most important social theorists and theories in contemporary sociological thought, with crisp summaries of the main books, arguments and controversies. It also deals with newly emerging schools from rational choice to symbolic interactionism, with new ambitious approaches, structuralism and antistructuralism, critical revisions of modernization theory, feminism and neopragmatism.
Two new articles on human rights:
“The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident” has been published in Human Rights Quarterly (February 2010) and can be accessed here. This article argues that attempts to justify human rights in terms of other sources of normativity unwittingly weaken the case of human rights. Instead these rights should be treated as moral causes that speak to us directly, as one of those rare precepts that are self-evident. All will hear self-evident moral claims unless they have been severely distracted, and even these persons will hear these claims once they are engaged in open moral dialogue.
“Life: The Most Basic Right” has been published in the Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 9, Is. 1).This article contends that the right to life is paramount and argues that the unique standing of the rightto life has significant implications for public policy in general, and for foreign policyin particular. The right to life is much more narrowly crafted than the right to manyentitlements that improve life (e.g., health, housing, and education) but are not requiredfor us to remain alive. The article can be accessed through the Journal of Human Rights website, here.
(By Amitai Etzioni).
Upcoming Events
Lecture on Communitarianism
Amitai Etzioni
March 11, 2010
12:00-1:30pm
Classroom 4334 (Lift 3), AcademicBuilding
Hong KongUniversity of Science and Technology
Global Citizenship Public Lecture on Security First
Amitai Etzioni
Friday, March 12, 2010
6:00pm (Tea reception at 5:30pm)
Convocation Room, 2/F, Main Building
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
To register, go here:
Enquiries:
Colloquium: Prospects for Sustainable Development: What Will Tomorrow's World Be like?
March 19-24, 2010
"End of Scarcity"
Amitai Etzioni
March 23, 2010 2:30-4:00pm
Europäische Akademie Otzenhausen/Nonnweiler –Saarland.
For more information, go here.
Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics’ Annual Meeting
Philadelphia, USA
June 24-26, 2010
The deadline for submission of papers to the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics conference is February 28, 2010. Questions should be directed to the wise and effective MarthaZuber at .
Endorsements
The Responsive Communitarian Platform can be found here. We invite all people who agree to endorse it by sending an email to with the subject “endorse RCP.”
The Diversity Within Unity Platform is here. We invite all people who agree to endorse it by sending an email to with the subject “endorse DWU.”
We welcome your thoughts, feedback, and communitarian news. Send them to .
Edited by Radhika Bhat
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