Social Compact Based on a Sense of Community
The core value I think the Metropolitan League is all about is a Social Compact Based on a Sense of Community. This means that all values and policy positions would be based on the notion that community is the core of progress. Defense, health care, labor rights, the environment, law enforcement, energy policy, civil rights, education... they can all be tied to community.
A social compact is a political concept that says if you are a part of a community, you are expected to give at least as much as you get. You pay taxes so that schools can be funded, so that roads can be maintained, so that police and fire departments can remain available to the public. You don't have to use these resources to help fund them, since the overall aim is to contribute to the community as a whole. This same sense of community leads us towards political positions that tend to be progressive. You cannot maintain a sense of community and be against universal health care. You cannot maintain a sense of community and fight against social justice. You cannot maintain a sense of community and ignore the welfare of the environment. Since the aim is to have a healthy community, we must implement policies that assist in maintaining that principle, that sense of community.
Progressivism is a sense of community. And we aim to provide practical solutions towards that sense.
A social compact is a political concept that says if you are a part of a community, you are expected to give at least as much as you get. You pay taxes so that schools can be funded, so that roads can be maintained, so that police and fire departments can remain available to the public. You don't have to use these resources to help fund them, since the overall aim is to contribute to the community as a whole. This same sense of community leads us towards political positions that tend to be progressive. You cannot maintain a sense of community and be against universal health care. You cannot maintain a sense of community and fight against social justice. You cannot maintain a sense of community and ignore the welfare of the environment. Since the aim is to have a healthy community, we must implement policies that assist in maintaining that principle, that sense of community.
Progressivism is a sense of community. And we aim to provide practical solutions towards that sense.
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3 Comments
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Comment by Kane C Gruber on May 30, 2008 at 4:12pm -
Good point -- what is our scope? My view is that any sense of community scales perfectly, regardless of the context.
Unless you're referring to something else. :-)
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Comment by Mark-Allen West on May 30, 2008 at 4:10pm - Similar, in sense, to the whole African village metaphor where it takes the whole community to raise a child. We're all part of something greater than ourselves. JFK was talking about this exact concept when he said "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." The question we now need to ask ourselves, as Met Leaguers, is where does the idea of community begin and end?
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Comment by Lisa Gruber on May 29, 2008 at 5:41pm - This is exactly right!
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