IDEAS // 'ASK BEFORE YOU FISH'
Place and People Matter
Hope for America in Seth D. Kaplan’s Fragile Neighborhoods
by Heather Shayne Blakeslee
EXCERPT //
I recently attended a camping and community retreat deep in Amish country in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t uncommon to see a horse-drawn buggy roll by, one of which was driven by two smiling, waving boys of about eight or nine whose team consisted of two tiny white ponies. At dusk in advance of the fall equinox, a young couple stopped by looking for a dog that had run off during a seed-collecting walk—he quickly found us, and they all joined our campfire, which was collectively involved in a multi-part musical improvisation. The weekend was full of people sharing what they knew about music, body movement, sound, breath, and connection.
That morning, the host of the house—a long-time counter-cultural advocate whose family has lived there for three generations—had handed me a troubling newspaper clipping off of his refrigerator. “This is what I’m worried about,” he told me, and I quickly took in the main idea: Americans are concerned that the country is going to devolve into civil war. While the numbers vary by study, at least 40% of Americans are anxious about the prospects that the democratic entropy we’ve been experiencing will devolve into yet more division and violence.
There is reason for concern about the loss of democratic and social norms, and the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is still seen by many as a sure sign that more violence is on the horizon; the FBI is also closely watching domestic hate groups. Despite these worrisome developments, Seth D. Kaplan, author of Fragile Neighborhoods, would like Americans to have a bit more perspective. He’s traveled the globe both studying and trying to stabilize “fragile states”—places such as Yemen or Colombia, which are characterized by a combination of weak governance, limited institutional capacity, and a lack of resilience to internal and external shocks. These conditions often lead to a breakdown in social services, economic instability, and heightened vulnerability to violence and conflict, which often spill over borders and lead to unimaginable human suffering.
I suggested to my host that, compared to what Kaplan has witnessed in other countries around the globe, he believes America’s systems of governance and our institutions are strong, and he notes that our economy is still powerful. Immigrants the world over still see us as their first choice to settle when they want a better life. Here’s one way to look at it: If you can turn your tap water on and get clean water or catch a train that runs on time, you probably shouldn’t be worrying about imminent civil war. //
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