The Common Collective: All Roads Lead to Rome

A few weeks living in Rome has me feeling good. I’m noticing that the air of “tourists” seems to be fading off us. Locals aren’t as dismissive, the language barrier is waning, public transportation is less scary, the city is feeling smaller, and we seem to be functioning day to day. Speaking to locals and interacting with shop owners has become much less awkward – less laughs at our expense. I’m not intimidated by going out alone anymore. And I’ve strangely began to feel like a stakeholder in the city. Rome has become more like Home.

As I assimilate Italian culture and become more analytical of its people, one thing is ringing clear: they all care. This weight of responsibility that I have felt after only two weeks must be felt so strongly by its citizens. This really is their city. They’re the caretakers’ of 2700 years of human efforts and struggles. They have a responsibility to human history as well as a social responsibility to the wellbeing of their communities. I read a LinkedIn article from a peer last week that enlightened my thinking about this sense of community. Macy Wheeler, a senior marketing student at the University of Arkansas, compared the sense of community in the U.S. to Italy’s. She focused on recycling to exemplify Italians’ subconscious dependency and unity. A wonderful read that I linked below. It boosted the thoughts of Italy’s social union to the front of my thought patterns in the last few days.?

As a boy from rural Arkansas, I’m marveling in how this city functions. How everyone plays their part in a larger scheme. I’m so used to stark independence at home, where depending on anyone but yourself and your family makes you meek. Here it’s not so much a self-reliance but a common collective. I love that thought. The notion that the wellbeing of all depends on the actions of all. That’s the function of society, it’s weird that I think it’s so special. We just rarely think of American society like that. Italians are thinking it every time they sort their recycling, use the honor system, give up their seat to an elderly person on the bus, conserve electricity to stabilize the grid, offer a mask when someone forgot theirs, and when they pay hefty taxes. Like the Latin proverb, “all roads lead to Rome,” millions of different actions lead to the same outcome:?Rome.

Not that a sense of community doesn’t exist in Arkansas or America as a whole. It does. Neighbors still help neighbors at home. It’s nowhere near as strong of an obligation, though. My neighbors in Fayetteville wouldn’t even think to shut their air conditioning off to make sure the lights stay on at Tropical Smoothie next door. Honestly most wouldn’t if they were asked. I’m also not suggesting this “common collective” is absolute or that Italian society is some flawless fairy tale. It’s not. In my last article I wrote about how being challenged by problems was the greatest similarity between my home and host. Challenges exist everywhere. However, here in Italy, they’re cooperating to address the problems. And that is what I’m impressed with.?

I will always believe that a human union, a common collective, a social cooperation will outperform the selfishness of an individual. I believe it so deeply that seeing it work almost makes my eyes water. I don’t see us solving or living with the challenges of the future outside of a common collective mindset. Lessened power supply, recycling, social spending, and grandmas on busses aren’t going anywhere in Italy. I have faith they can handle it, though. They’ve shown me they are ready to work together.?

We, as future American business leaders, should take note of cooperation, however. I know competition is the foundation of healthy enterprise, but we need to acknowledge greater social need and oblige those needs when possible. Don’t let the desire to win become self-indulgent. I think it was Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club, that said social capitalism was “enlightened self-interest.” He was a die-hard competitive capitalist that built the 2022 Fortune #1 company. He would have likely cringed at the term “common collective.” He believed in the principle, though. Sam’s thoughts on better business is why I went to the Sam M. Walton College of Business and Rome’s common collective is evidence helping others works.?

I have “common collective” written in my journal now. I hope I live by it more from now on. I’ll still compete and reward myself but I’m not afraid to take an extra few minutes to sort recycling or to turn the air conditioning off when we leave. If it helps my Roman neighbors, I’m willing. That’s the power of social cooperation. Rome taught me that.?

Macy Wheeler Article:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/community-italy-vs-america-sustainability-mind-macy-wheeler/?trackingId=4wldlr%2F99NJ1b%2Bfr3Hkejw%3D%3D