ABSTRACT
Community is not seen as a fundamental expression of personal and social identity. And community is not simply an amplification or extension of personal identity; it is an identity in itself, an identity that is more than and other than the individual alone plus other people. Community is certainly a more real and functioning identity than the political, economic and trade unit called the state. The state is primarily defined by its extent and its control of transportation and resources, and very little defined by the emotional and psychological needs of individuals. The state is threatened by real bonding in communities and particularly threatened by any community approaching self-sufficiency or autonomy. (In premodern Japan the military dictatorship consciously tried to wipe out the economically nearly self-sufficient small cross-village units called buraku by getting their members into debt—tempting them with Tokyo goods not produced by their household and village economy).
