Реферат: The Paradox Of Community Essay Research Paper

in Sander County. Understandings of personal injury claims are largely shaped

by these societal transformations as the local populace encounters them and also

by the notion that traditional relationships in the community were progressively

falling apart (30). These changes threaten Sander County’s sense of community.

This manifests in the frequent condemnation of personal injury claims.

Sander County values an individualism that emphasizes self-sufficiency

and personal responsibility rather than a rights-oriented individualism. To be

a part of the community, an insider must embrace the reality that one’s concerns

are ?not entirely one’s own,? that one’s wants are linked to the wants of others

(123). Pursuing a claim against someone else because of a personal injury is ?

an attempt to escape responsibility for one’s own actions? (33). The wide-

spread notion here is that the victims probably could have prevented the injury

if they were more careful. This strong sense of self-reliance also stems from

their perceptions of money. The people of Sander County, many of them farmers,

work long and hard hours for their money. Dramatizing one’s ill fortunes is not

a legitimate means of acquiring it. As a rather close-knit community, the

residents are well acquainted with each other and interact frequently if not on

a daily basis. Pursuing a personal injury claim is not only atypical but rather

awkward for the plaintiff since it is highly probable that he or she knows the

defendant. This community pressure keeps the majority of the people from

pursuing litigation for personal injuries. For example, a woman who lost her

child in a car accident, influenced by community pressure, failed to file a

claim. Instead, she settled for $12,000 (35). Wronged individuals usually

react to injuries without litigation. They do so either because they do not

regard the issue as a contention with another person or because association in

an insular society hinders them from maintaining an assertion that is socially

unacceptable.

Even the lawyers of Sander County, whose professional role is to assert

claims on behalf of plaintiffs, share the indigenous partiality to criticize