Instant Community: No Assembly Required

These are rough days for the "rat-terrier community," the "heavy-metal community," the "porn community" and the "arms community,"among other communities in the world's expanding community ofcommunities.

But these are bright days for "community" in general, the term ifnot the concept.

There is a community for everyone -- canker sore sufferers, pantylovers, Duran Duran fans, goat owners -- to a point they areproliferating into a community of self-parody.

While "community" has been a hackneyed term for decades -- termssuch as "the black community," "the gay community" the "internationaldisaster relief community," and the "investor community" have longbeen over-applied to diverse and often fractured realms -- theInternet has provided a spaceless "place" for communities to convene.Indeed, there you will find not only the ferret lover community butalso the zit lover community. (Don't believe? Google.)

The journalism community loves communities, or at least callingthings communities, no matter how tenuous or irrelevant thesedesignations might be.

"Speaking as a member of the journalism criticism community," saysmedia critic Bob Garfield, "I find that calling something a'community' is yet another journalistic crutch that leans heavily ona foundation that doesn't really exist."

Garfield, who is a host of National Public Radio's "On the Media"and a columnist for Advertising Age, also identifies himself as amember of the "why-do-we-even-answer-phone-calls-from-annoying-reporters community."

Sociologists have been bemoaning the loss of community in Americafor decades -- people becoming more isolated, partaking of moresolitary pursuits at the expense of "building community." That whole"Bowling Alone" thing.

But by naming something a "community," we impose a faux-descriptive category on what is generally a random phenomenon. Forinstance, this month's slaying of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, the Missouriwoman who was eight months pregnant and whose fetus was cut from herbody, would outrage anyone with a shred of humanity (if notcommunity). But because the murder was allegedly perpetrated by awoman who learned about her online "from the rat-terrier community"(according to CNN), the incident struck that community particularlyhard.

And the onstage slaying of Pantera founder "Dimebag" DarrellAbbott at an Ohio nightclub this month devastated "the heavy-metalcommunity," according to members of the aggrieved community -- or,more likely, reporters who wrote about them.

But the promiscuity of community is more than purely a mediaphenomenon. Groups of people often strain to identify themselves as acommunity. This is particularly true when one of their own dies (say,a member of "the NASCAR community" after a crash), or isinconvenienced (a member of "the air travel community" during theholiday weekend) or has reason to celebrate (the "Star Warscommunity" when a new movie is released).

We also hear a lot from the ham radio community, the Mac userscommunity, Irritable Bowel Syndrome community, the transgendercommunity, the swingers community, the peanut allergy community, thevegan community and the stoner community. Even the anarchistcommunity -- which would seem to be a contradiction -- has chaptersacross the country and is ubiquitous on the Web.

"Community evokes a sense of warm-fuzziness on a group of peoplewho have only the most superficial bonds," says Amitai Etzioni, aGeorge Washington University sociologist who has written extensivelyabout the "community of communities" around the world.

Etzioni says the term "community" has not been overused as much asabused. He says an authentic community must include both genuinebonds of affection and shared moral values.

"That should be the test of a community," says Etzioni, "notwhether someone simply calls them a community."

We celebrate this man as a pillar of the community-restraintcommunity.