8. A PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY Some form of a Community
--A Desire for Opportunity organization, bringing together
for All--i.e., Democracy all the above.

On the other hand we must recognize man's gregarious tendency, his
desire for the support of public opinion, his craving of a feeling of
"togetherness." The elation which comes to a people engaged in war or in
meeting any common disaster comes chiefly from the satisfaction they
experience in being united in a common cause and enjoying the sanction
of their fellows without division among them. The individualistic
philosophy of the more sophisticated may enable them to find
satisfaction in more or less socially segregated groups under ordinary
conditions, but when they face calamity, when the most fundamental and
deepest issues of life are involved, then they enjoy association with
those who surround them--they become "neighbors."

This desire of men to associate in groups which represent their special
interests, and their equal desire to be _en rapport_ with all their
fellows with whom their life is associated in community life, is one of
the paradoxes into which many of our basic human problems resolve, and
furnishes one of the primary reasons for some form of community
organization which will unify the increasing complexity of associations.

A third underlying motive for community organization, which is just
coming to receive recognition, is the need of defending the interests of
the local community against the domination of national or state
organizations, of maintaining a necessary degree of local autonomy. All
organizations which become associated in state or national federations
inevitably develop a central administration which tends to become more
or less of a hierarchy or bureaucracy. The national organization seeks
to achieve its special objects and to emphasize their supreme
importance. It tries to secure efficiency of the local groups through
standardization, and very naturally encourages their loyalty to the
state or national aims and purposes. This tendency is more or less
inevitable and is an inherent weakness of all large organizations which
do not constantly place their emphasis on strengthening their local
units and encouraging devotion to community service. But in many cases
the larger organization has lost a true perspective of its relationship
to its local units and of their primary duty to their local communi