The three ‘C’s’

Focusing on cooperation, collaboration and conservation

By Stan Norman
Reader Contributor

Two years ago, this child of the ’60s and ’70s traveled to Vietnam with my partner. We felt a need to visit the place and people that had dominated the news while we were in high school and college.

One sunny day we were touring Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon in our youth) with our guide and the discussion turned political. He said that when the Americans left in 1976 Vietnam entered into a period of 20 years when the country attempted to apply “pure” communism to its economy and politics and outlawed religion. It didn’t go well. He said that things didn’t improve until Vietnam normalized relations with the United States in 1996 and opened its borders to investors and diversification. 

Then he mused that, “Pure communism is good in theory but not in practice.” 

I thought for a moment and replied, “Pure capitalism is the same way.” We shook hands on that.

It’s amazing how many important words start with “C”: capitalism, communism, community. I recently dusted off a blog that I wrote after the 2016 election about capitalism unencumbered by compassion (another “C” word). Perhaps it’s time to transform our own culture from the three “C’s” of capitalism to the three “C’s” of community.

The three C’s of capitalism have dominated our culture as a nation for nearly its entire 250-year existence. Competition, comparison and consumerism have become a way of life for most of us. We compete with one another in every aspect of our personal and professional lives. We compete at work, at play and at home. We compare ourselves and our lifestyles constantly, without even thinking. We consume resources that sustain life on this small planet without regard for the consequences to future generations, to other species and to the environment.

The good news is that we can still compete, compare and consume if we do so with compassion for our neighbors. The three C’s of community are cooperation, collaboration and conservation.

We can compete without demonizing our opponents, focusing on improving ourselves instead of on winning. We can compare without belittling others, humbly recalling our own shortfalls. We can work with others for the common good. We can consume without taking more resources than we need just because we can. Everyone can have what they need if no one has all that they want.

As he was signing the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin said, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” On this important anniversary for the United States, we should heed the advice of one of our wisest forefathers and vote for community and neighbor, over one particular ideology or theology. Capitalism has brought us great wealth at the cost of our collective soul. Let’s hang together in 2026 and renew our community spirit.  

Stan Norman is a Sandpoint resident.