America has been said to be the world's first "new nation." Before the United States was conceived, the boundaries of nations were formed around shared history or ethnicity -- each group set apart. In contrast, the American founding concept was occupancy of the same space.

In theory at least, one became American by standing on American territory -- a nation of immigrants coming together from numerous different places to create a new future. Villages and then cities arose around the "commons." The commons were places where anyone could let their animals graze and where members of the community gathered to exchange greetings -- which today we would call building social capital.

That is the ideal we should recapture: common ground connecting extremely diverse people.

Diversity is in our faces every day. Hispanics are the fastest growing minority, but the amount of Spanish spoken in some parts of the U.S. is only the tip of the iceberg. Some urban public schools have native language speakers of over 100 different languages in school at the same time. America is said to be the most religiously diverse nation on earth, and is both secular and devout. Even our economy is diverse, encompassing enormous regional variation and a federal system that devolves power to the provinces. Centuries before Europe's common market or international trade blocs, we created, in a sense, the world's first common market of distinctive economic regions.

Our diversity requires finding a common denominator without destroying the depth that differences imply. Often it's a lowest common denominator, something superficial. American pop culture has swept the world because within our borders it manages to appeal to people who are otherwise unimaginably different. Similarly, American-style English became the universal language of commerce not because it was elegant and precise but because it was inclusive; English is so easy to speak badly, in a variety of accents, and still be understood.

We can do better than always reverting to the lowest common denominator. We can find a highest common denominator in our principles of openness, inclusion, and civic responsibility. These principles help us master the future by renewing our population, reinventing our institutions, and adding to our stock of new ideas that produce innovations.

We no longer graze cattle in the village square, but we share a common infrastructure and national defense; we breathe the same air and move freely across the same roads. We need a new definition of the commons for this new century, to rediscover what it means to share public space and responsibility.

The commons could dissolve into our iPods as we create iWorlds with segment-of-one markets of iIndividuals. Mass markets have morphed into niches and customization. Mass media (the so-called MSM, for mainstream media) are disappearing quickly. Will Wikipedias unite us? The public interest is often seen as the sum of private interests and actions, not as a whole that is worth more. Interest group politics are strong, largely because of the role of money in campaign finance. So the public interest writ large is never quite articulated, and many people are suspicious that everything is self-interested anyway, however altruistic it appears.

We should return to the idea of America as common ground occupied by diverse people. We can seek not the lowest but the highest common denominator when we use noble, traditional principles to guide actions of varied, diverse kinds. To do this will take is an informed citizenry, civic institutions to connect people to service locally and nationally, a strong articulation of public purpose, and frequent convening across institutions and sectors to examine problems and issues that can't be handled by any single sector or group by itself.

A national conversation on values would be a cliché. But perhaps we can have a common set of questions to ask every potential national leader, a questionnaire for applying for the job, and a scorecard to see how they perform. Are they a divider or a uniter? Do they show favoritism or favor inclusion? Do they take it out on those with the least or call for those who have more to do more?

The original idea of America rested on what we decide to do with the space we occupy together. We still share that responsibility.

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Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the author of the just-published book, AMERICA THE PRINCIPLED: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again (New York: Crown), from which this is adapted.
© Copyright 2007 by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.