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One sided polemic continues in Chapter 7, Nurturing Virtue in Community
p.167 straw dog "example" of failed telecommute (the manager obviously had no desire to see it work, so how is this a model?) Hardly a "panacea", and so Schultze leaps from this conclusion to conclude it can't work.
Leap to chapter 7 where I see Schultze is not qualified to comment, since he obviously has a predisposition to reject notions of intimacy or "communion" online. Churches in general have th is view, otherwise, there would be no excuse whatsoever for not utiliziing this technology to try to "get back in touch"----- and get "back in touch" with what was lost not via computer technology, but by selling out to an entertainment, onstage presentation of "gospel" which has turned the Christian community idea into a television audience long before the Internet arrived. In fact, the Internet has been a "gathering place" for postmoderns and seekers who have NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIND such "communion" in the traditional churches, so clueless are they about keeping people in touch with one another, or even hinting that this should be a highly desired and sought after relationship to seek. Cal to Commitment expressed this in 1963. The falure of the Church to grapple with the issue of the integrity of Church membership is a betrayal of the gospel.
Rarely ANY of the people Schultze would probably associate in the camp of "cyber-entusiast" advocate the "sole use" of cyberspace as locale for community. It CAN and often does BEGIN there. Bob Sabath of Sojourners and I have been friends, often out of touch, but "RE-reachable" very quickly with the news of my job search and the thoughts they have had about re-doubling their efforts to build and extend community via their Web. Ken Bedell and I keep in touch via this medium between the once every two-to-four years (it's been since summer of 2001)
"No infrastructure at all" (p.168) is ludicrous
My own job search would be unaffordable without my broadband connection which I have used to search and to contact EVERY SINGLE JOB possibility I have thus far uncovered (in addition to other acquaintances who also use their "electronic" contacts to alert their list to my need for work. CBF, Sojourners, Virginia Baptist Missions, Maurice Painter's consulting company, Ken Bedell's dad, Glendale Baptist itself, Edgehill's "possibilities" and oppurtunities.
Another abstract: "the good life"
"Contradictory sentiments: the craving to annihilate geographic barriers and the longing to find our beloved community with a real dwelling place". (p.169) First, the use of the word "barriers" implies that what is being sought is the overcoming of the "disadvantages often faced", not the ELIMINATION of the thing experiencing the "limiting barrier"; the idea is to "soften the blow" and render less powerful the ill-effects of the barrier. The "community" is in fact "dissolved" while the barrier is in place (uh, that's why it is experienced as a "barrier"). The "seeping through" of SOME aspects of contact makes the "barrier" pourous, and allows some of the "communing" to take place. Not perfectly, mind you, but SOME contact is restored. Now my argument has long maintained that there are also MANY MANY very serious barriers in face to face communication as well. No one suggests that the existence of these is cause to eschew face to face communications; to "give up" on ever making contact. Most of us know better. Our own experiences of community are our hope that still more exists out there to be discovered --- and when I say "out there", I mean "not yet known".
11:59:18 AM 
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