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The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace [Book Review]

Article · August 1998

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David Grinstead
Alamance Community College
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Peck, M.S. (1988). The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. Touchstone: New York,
New York

Reviewed by David Grinstead, Class: TS 503, Atlantic University, Virginia Beach, VA

“I am lonely”…”my loneliness—and yours—is inevitable”…”we can never be

completely whole in and of ourselves.” Alone and a drift are words that easily describe the

mindset of the masses in Western culture, and this book does an admirable job of addressing this

state of collective consciousness.

Scott Peck outlines various means and ways of relating to self and others within the

contest of deep community experiences and settings. Direct in his approach with many personal

life examples, using easily understood terms and explanations, he provides insight into how to

transcend individual differences while embracing and empowering individual uniqueness,

lifestyle, and intimacy needs within the context of service to and for the community whole.

Western ideals (U.S.A. in particular) tend to run in opposite extremes and may be

examined as lifestyle ideas of thesis versus antithesis in conceptualization and expression. An

example is the American myth of rugged individualism played out against overwhelming group

pressures which use shame, guilt, and duty to enforce mass conformity.

Using the Jungian concept and percepts of individuation, Peck positions himself well in

the opening chapters by outlining and stating the need for individuals to develop fully and to take

complete responsibility for the living of one’s life to its ultimate potential. Yet in the midst of

this living out, Peck gives equal importance to the opposite need for social belonging, and

explores the extremes to which individuals are willing to go in sacrificing their uniqueness and

differences in order to conform to the demands of a group.

The text and contents do not venture into the loftier realms of Transpersonal Community,

but remain well within the boundaries of normal sensory perception and personal community
experiences lived out in mainstream institutional settings such as family, marriage, work, service

groups, professional groups, fraternal groups and churches. Peck addresses the need for realistic,

workable, and inclusive community experiences in real life situations in which most anyone will

not only experience belonging and acceptance, without the hiding/cloaking of individuality; but

will also experience the use of unique techniques and problem solving means that rarely exist in

pseudo-community settings which generally rely on a single ego or collective of strong egos to

direct and lead the community.

His most important contribution to community work is the introduction of spiritual

postulates and procedures enabling the transcendence of the boundaries of normal exclusive

community experience (pseudo-community) and the emergence of true community which is an

inclusive, spiritual and possibly religious like experience for many. True community is likened

to the experiences of early Christians prior to the institutionalization of the Christian collective

experience. Peck points out that he thought the Church would welcome and embrace his work,

but it was the opposite that happened. The Church at large has distanced itself from his work

and repositioned itself as an exclusive pseudo-community versus inclusive community. He takes

the Church to task for not embracing its mission of universal wholeness by examining the nature,

work, and Being of Christ and the ultimate meaning and expedience of spiritual transcendence

and transformation of the ego in the service of community.

This book is great! I have read it cover to cover several times and continue to refer to it

for ideas and direction in my work as a spiritual leader and team member at my place of

employment. Having attended one of Peck’s community building skills intensives--which is

based in this books precepts—I have gained much in my understanding of building and

participating in inclusive community experiences.

 ……………………………

Author description: David Grinstead is now at Department of Continuing Education, Alamance

Community College. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to David

Grinstead, Department of Continuing Education, Alamance Community College, P.O. Box 8000,

Graham, NC 27253-8000. Contact: dcgrinstead879@access.alamancecc.edu.

More information regarding the author is available at www.linkedin.com/in/livealife.

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