The Common Life

Essay by vinni119 January 2004

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

After reading "The Common Life," and "The Uses of Sidewalks," it is easy to see that the main idea in both essays is security. The question that arises from reading the two essays is: What method is best to provide security in a community? In both essays, though used in different ways; the community is used as a means for security. The types of security provided by both essays are very natural. Though the police are preferred by most people as means of protection, the community looking out for each other is done rather naturally. Thoroughly analyzing both essays can show which security procedure is more efficient compared to the actual police department.

Scott Russell Sanders, the author of "The Common Life," has very interesting ideas when it comes to adding better security to the community. Sanders wanted to take the more natural approach in obtaining security. With most people, having a gun, security throughout the home and the police department seem like natural approaches towards security.

Sanders does not think this is the way to achieve better security. His approach is to get to know the people in the community better. By doing this, as the individual gets to know the people in their neighborhood better, they start to look out for them and make sure they are o.k., without knowing they are doing it. This reflects more of a side-effect rather than the actual intention. It seems as though Sanders analyzed this idea in motion and noticed it was a building block for security. Sanders thought up this idea in hopes that it would spread from community to community, in order to increase security awareness. This was a safe environment could be established.

The ideas of Scott Russell Sanders are very interesting yet his ideas have...