Contemplating the block

Malcolm McDonell

I was listening briefly to an ABC television current affairs program in which there was a
lot of discussion of the role of the community. One spoke of the community waking up
and ‘saying something’. Another mentioned the impact of communications where the
contacts made by internet and the like give access to friends who may be anywhere – not
likely to be near by. Another conservative politician was heard speaking of the
importance of community and wishing that an active community might solve social
problems. But the old sense of community that our grandparents knew has withered.

These became a stimulus to me to put some thoughts down.

The word community is used very widely, very loosely and with enormous differences in
meaning. At one time it is all of Australia or even all of the world. At another time it is
the people in your street, or the people in your suburb, or part of it, or beyond it. My
perspective is shaped by the philosophy of Prout which sees communities being redefined
in a far reaching way. I will not discuss Prout in its breadth but look at one aspect of its
notion of community.

The world has a collective existence and more ordinarily we relate to nations as having
existence that we share in. In Australia states are a subset and council areas smaller again
– then suburb, ‘street’, and household. The nation operates with a welfare net which is
run by a bureaucracy. I am picturing another construction of society – my take on the
meaning (in part) of Prout.

Prout is a spiritual ideal with the aim of working with all people as members of a family.
Have you ever noticed the way you are treated by someone who knows you already – as
opposed to someone who does not know you? The bureaucratic contact is cold and
unforgiving, while the contact from a known entity is usually more friendly. The
centerpiece of community in prout’s design is the ‘block’. The block is a community
which has some cultural identity, and is thought of (though not defined in Prout) as being
about 100 000 to 200 000 people. The scope within the block is extensive.
But what is so good about this number of people?

As a person with many years behind me I reflect on how many people I have known or
could recognize from the past. In my early childhood I went to primary school and was
part of a class of about 30 students. As well as them there were numerous teachers and
authorities. In my play around home territory I knew perhaps 100 people. I had as many
as 100 relatives that I knew well and other known by name and reputation. As I went into
‘big school’ – grade 3- I met a new bunch of student in my class, other teachers, and
many parents, and in the yard I got to know more students across the school. I probably
knew half of the school’s 600 students. And each year there were more teachers and
authorities and parents.
I was meeting people perhaps 300 even 500 per year. And in my high school years I
became more mobile and my school contacts were a lesser part of my group of contacts.
Traveling to sports and parties and outings I knew most of the students of my school and
many from many other schools. And I started new endeavours which took me into new
social mixes. In those years I was meeting 1000 people per year. By the time I was 15
years old I believe I would have known 10 000 individuals. Then in my late teens – off to
university – a social romp on a mighty scale. I was mightily distracted from my studies
by my social life. I met people far and wide. And my stay at university was prolonged –
There were about 10 000 students at my campus and then staff as well. I am sure that
when I left there I at least recognized half the people on the campus – at least 5000
people! Since then I have lived in 4 cities and traveled and stayed in other places –
meeting people to the tune of perhaps 1000 per year. And in my sixty odd years I believe
I have met – and would still be capable of recognizing most of those people. Over 50
years – 1000 per year that is 50 000 people!

I am capable of having a personal relationship with all of those 50 000 people. And of
course I am not claiming to be unusual in that. I believe we are all like that. Some
garrulous types would easily know twice as many even ten times as many.

With those numbers in mind think again of the look of your “block level’ community. I
have a social situation which has a fairly clear geographic outline. I can think of the
district outside my door which is about 100 000 people making up the southern outskirts
and hinterland of Adelaide.

Of course in the modern way I have not focused my attention on the people of this area. I
have involvement with people interstate and overseas, on the other side of town and
beyond. And over time I have not been a local local. But I can well imagine that if I was
locally focused I would be familiar with most of those people. If there are 100 000 people
in my ‘community’ I might not know all of them – not the really old, nor the very young
unless personally connected. As a male I might know more of the males. And I might
know half of this community. The other half are going to be close relations to these
people. So anyone I deal with is either known to me or known by people I know. This
second degree would be the maximum social distance in my community relations.

In prout’s concept of the block the economy should be planned. The economy is
agriculturally centred with small and large scale industries interacting within or beyond
the block. But the block should be well defined on rational grounds – and that means
largely on ecological grounds. Typically any region will be oriented around water – and
that means a valley system. A block can then be demarcated and planning in its myriad
forms can be applied to that area. Now how does community look from this block
perspective?

People in this district are interacting daily in the mechanics of this economy. People from
other areas will be in another block and the connections between blocks will not be as
numerous as those within it. Blocks will interact for instance where there is heavy
industry, and not each block will have this sort of industry within it. Unlike present day
arrangements most social institutions will be organized on the basis of the block.

I can imagine that my local block will have a number of market place towns. It will have
a connecting public transport system (at present the public transport in my block is almost
nonexistent). It will have a local administration. It will have a number of schools –
perhaps 30 or 40. Of them there would be about 8 -10 high schools. There would be 2 or
3 tertiary institutions.

There would be medical clinics – perhaps just like at present. The block would need one
major hospital as well as the numerous peripheral heath services. (In SA at the moment
there is a plan to cut some country hospitals and focus on a few. It is not clear just which
areas should have them. In conventional current decentralization there is no logic to
which places have the main hospitals, or educational institutions.) In a block level set up
it would be clear that each and every block would have them at least to a minimum
standard.

The economic activity of the block would depend on the potentiality of the area. Soil and
climate would be the primary shapers of the economy. A tropical area might have lots of
bananas, and a Mediterranean area might have olives. If possible there should be timber
forests and dairy, and vegetables and fruit as well as some clothing manufacturing,
whether it be based on cotton, flax, hemp, silk or synthetics. And there should be building
construction capabilities, perhaps brick making, cement manufacture (although in times
of global warming we might prefer mud brick style architecture in the main). And each
area has its special local specialty due to its unique situation.

With this picture of community I think it is easy to see that the problems we come across
like those in the current affairs analysis would never be so out of control in this block
level plan. I think that this sort of analysis of block level organization would show many
significant advantages for decent living in the 21st century.

At present our regions are not well defined and in fact have a limited role to play. Council
areas are of a similar size to blocks. But administration of many economic functions do
not conform to the council boundaries – in recognition of their lack of relevance. A block
would have the most significant impact through its role as planning body for the local
economy. So the block level administration would deal with all council activities as well
as many state and federal government functions such as:- water, ecology, conservation,
energy, economy, commerce, industry, housing, land, employment, welfare, health,
transport, education etc.

And the administration of these functions would be greatly enhanced by the familiarity
amongst the population due to the manageable numbers referred to before. Many of the
matters of social breakdown would be reduced significantly within this framework. There
would not be the same series of problems around youth homelessness, drugs, graffiti, and
the culture of vandalism. With the positive impact of meaningful work through the
reshaping of the economy it is easy to imagine a more unified social situation.
To me this is a more useful way to view the impact of a prout society than the high
political atmosphere of action taken in the federal or state political arena.