Community: the great struggle of our times

 

    Community. It is a universal concept. Fundamental to the human desire to belong. In all areas of life we see the almost natural formation of communities, often grouping around shared appreciations or beliefs. As a nerd I have seen communities spring up around every single fandom, or hobby that I engage with. In 2019 I attended PAX AUS. An event that arguably was created to celebrate all the different aspects and communities of gaming. Whilst I was there you could see each of the different communities. A short walk took you through the bright lights of the videogaming section, and even within that there was the various indie game producers.The next hall over saw the various stalls peddling their tabletop offerings. All of these different tribes all forming one PAX AUS community. The conversations I had with other attendees revealing the differences in opinion, attitude, and tastes. All from different communities. Recently in my interaction with various online spaces there appears to be a habit to throw term 'community'around in a fairly broad stroke. More often than not in lamenting, lambasting, or separating one community or another. People using the royal 'The' when speaking about the community. It was one particular individual who would go on to motivate this post. They were not entirely unique in what they were saying, but it was finally enough to make me spill some digital ink. So to set the tone of this piece I offer this potential heretical statement. It is not THE COMMUNITY, it is instead A COMMUNITY. 

Ahh a dated reference

        Now, be still your initial reaction to this statement, and hear me out. I am not pretending that there is not a main community. To explain this I will focus on the Warhammer hobby to look at this concept of community. In roughly twenty nineteen I began to be more active on twitter, and made a number of connections with other Warhammer enthusiasts. Now I have been a Warhammer player since the early nineties and I would definitely say that Warhammer for me has always been a social hobby. From going into my local Games Workshop store, to having hobbying days with mates, to going to gaming clubs, and store events. Being old enough to remember the internet coming into the average home, I remember the scope of Warhammer expanding. Seeing what was happening in other countries. Forums became a regular hang out. These online connections gave a sense of a much larger community. A Warhammer community that encompassed people from all over the world. This would later go on to include youtube as well. At that time I considered all of these as a community. Then we would see the creation of Facebook and the a whole wave of new communities spring up. Groups, and pages, all focusing on Warhammer. Now each of these were controlled and directed by Moderators. The new cyber liege lords that would manage, and carve out their own corners of the online community. Even now I know one individual that under the umbrella of the Warhammer community manages a youtube and a group for almost every faction for their chosen Warhammer game. Aside from a love of Warhammer products it would be a leap to assume these are all homogeneous. Additionally, it would be a stretch to call them THE community. This is what I mean when I say 'A', and not 'The' community. 

Me leaving Marine facebook groups

    I have also seen a facebook group become overwhelmed. I ended up leaving a couple of the Space Marine facebook groups because they just became truly disgusting. There are always those lunatic posts in any group you are a part of. However, the number of those posts, and people who support them got to the point that Mods, and members started jumping ship. Others I kept just to watch the insanity like visiting a zoo. When people point to these kind of groups and say 'that is THE community', my eyes roll so violently I worry about damage to my optic nerve. Again they are A community, not THE community. I am not denying they are fans of Warhammer, and I am not talking about the no real Scotsman fallacy. I am saying that shit does not represent the majority of Warhammer fans, and certainly are not the primary community of Warhammer. They are just A community within the overall fandom. Sometimes we would do well to look at all of this like a land mass inhabited by different tribes. We may use a group label to everyone living in that land mass, but each tribe is different. Their commonalities are separated by individual group customs and beliefs. Also as I wrote previously we are not in control of who actually likes the same things we do, and can only move as fast as our slowest idiot (https://theliterarykhan.blogspot.com/2021/04/opinion-in-defense-of-dystopia-why.html ). The link between sharing a fandom does not make you the same as someone else. 

Thinking in monoliths devalues everyone

        Just as the desire to be a part of a community is an inherent part of human nature, so sadly is the desire to be dominant. The social dynamics that are present in the majority of people can often lead to this tribalism becoming a vehicle for social competition. One of the craziest parts of all of this is the striving to be THE community, and the use of that title to drive people out. I have always taken people as individuals, and as such I have seen people of all types engaging with the hobby. I will go to sleep and wake up to see someone getting savaged, and tribal lines being redrawn. Then members of certain tribes going after individuals. Individual disputes being made tribal issues. All of this competition is not a conscious thing, and in many cases it is just a part of human nature. Additionally, there is no point in dismissing the allure of being considered a part of THE community. I have even once seen people talking about follow and follower ratios on twitter as a form of status. Whenever someone starts to take off in terms of following, and public profile I start a clock. There will inevitably be a point they make the radar and get into strife. Moreover, in one sad case I saw an individual take off in this fashion. They were constantly doing give aways which no doubt contributed to them making the radar. When they finally hit their landmine and got savaged. I was not surprised. I saw people justify the attack against this individual by saying the community should not have them in it. My dislike of dogpiling aside, again I was left wondering whose community? 

    I apologise for sounding too flippant but there is no THE community. You do not want to associate with someone then I suggest using the tools that are available. Block, mute, or unfollow. Just sharing a fandom does not mean you are bonded to anyone. Anymore than my riding a motorcycle puts me in the same category as a Hell's Angel. Sadly this individual was dogpiled into oblivion and dropped out of the scene. This brings me to what motivated this post. I saw a person recently who has never done me any harm, not saying they are 100% innocent. Afterall I am not their keeper. However, on some human level it is hard to see a person voice that they feel that nobody wants them to be a part of 'THE' community and that they want to quit the hobby. As though firstly that such a thing exists, and secondly that some kind of vote was had. 

    In the end I do not think I will ever be able to fully get behind this idea of THE Community. I will always see it as a landmass inhabited by various tribes, and as far as the great landmass goes I can see enough room. I can also say to people that many go on to live rich fulfilling lives not being part of THE Community. I advise people also to remember that famous philosopher who said 'Twitter Stercore, quod sit ubi est vita'. Ok, it was me I am saying it Twitter is shit, life is where it is'. Make your own community. Get away from online. Going back to my PAX AUS experience. In the lead up to that event there were various online dramas, and guess how many mattered in person. None. The stuff that was so important to THE Community meant sweet fek all in the scheme of things. 

    I enjoy my time on Twitter looking at all the hobby out there, talking to new people, welcoming them into my little Khanate, and sharing with them. That is my little community. Or rather one of them. Then there is my real world communities, then my facebook ones, and so on. However, one thing I will never do is claim any of them are THE Community. So going forth whenever you see some hyperbolic statement about THE Community just nod and move along. I know I will. If you see someone struggling, if you see someone copping a bit of stick, or if you just see something cool reach out and let them know. 

    To those that may have been upset by a perceived shitting on hobby twitter well 

a