Here in the Quad (Bagwell, Becton, Berry Halls) we have an issue with kitchen usage. People are consistently leaving dirty dishes in the sinks of the public kitchens. Therefore, other people have to clean up someone else’s slack, thus creating a lot of complaints on the community’s Facebook page.
We have finally reached a point in this dilemma where we are beginning to talk about solutions. Nearby, in the Triad, they use a checkout system to get kitchenware from RAs by signing it out. This solution has been proposed for the Quad: the idea of individual responsibility for dishes. There’s another group who believes all it will take to fix this problem is for people to clean an extra dish while cleaning their own: the idea of collective responsibility for dishes.
Only one year ago, we faced a problem nearly indistinguishable from this one. People consistently weren’t picking up their laundry and often used way too much detergent, thereby breaking the washers. In general, the laundry rooms, a public facility, were in a tragic state of neglect.
The noise of anger about the laundry rooms grew so loud that the RAs of the Quad gathered to address the issue. They decided it was time for an educational campaign on how to use the laundry rooms. They made some Facebook posts explaining the consequences of leaving clothes in the washers and driers. They made some signs pleading residents to use less detergent. They talked about it in hall meetings. And it worked. As soon as they started making people think about how to use the laundry rooms, the problem disappeared.
Clearly, the Quad has faced some issues with the use of common spaces. But there is something deeper to the issue. Who is responsible for maintaining social spaces? The individual or the group; whose needs and desires take priority?
The history of the United States is rooted in individualism. The Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution is rooted in protecting individual liberties. Capitalism is entrenched in the idea that individuals must make themselves competitive to succeed economically. The political ideology of the Republican Party is based around self-reliance and the old “pull yourself by your bootstraps” myth. Many Americans believe in the idea of the big dreamer: an individual driven enough by his or her vision for change that he or she single-handedly changes the world.
Individualism is embedded in our culture and has a strong hold on us. Luckily, a discussion is beginning that compares the merits of valuing the individual and valuing the group. Obamacare drove a discussion about who should be responsible for paying for healthcare. Minimum wage discussions are making people think about how the poor can escape poverty. This dichotomy shows up when discussing food stamps, taxation, what to do about homelessness, etc; it pervades our politics. The decisions we make about whether the group or individual is more important will affect the livelihood of everyone in the country.
This election season allows us to talk, in depth, about significant matters such as this. We are reaching a point where important decisions on the matter of individualism versus communitarianism must be made. We must all pay attention to this dispute. The outcomes of these discussions will decide whether it’s time for a reinvestment in a core value of our country, or whether, as Bernie Sanders would put it, it’s time for a political revolution.