Prelude: in the most enlightened, compassionate and intelligent
sense there will be no relative security for anyone unless we
address the security of everyone. This was obvious at the beginning
of humanities rise hundreds of thousands of years ago, and it is
about to be abundantly clear at this stage in our present evolution.
There can be no doubt (or soon it will be quite obvious) that
unless we address everyone's BASIC
quality of life issues (relative security included),
a great many may suffer. Not
to mention those who have suffered in the past, and are suffering
now.
Of course this is a hugely important issue, particularly to the
young. I know when I was looking into communal living as a young man
I certainly thought about this issue. What happens a few years down
the line after I've put in all this effort to help create this
community and it either collapses or for some reason I wish to
leave. What do I leave with? What's on my back and I can put into a
pack? The world is a hostile place out there, it's not waiting to
receive one with open arms and say how can I help you. I know that.
To some degree, it cannot be denied there is some reality to the
concept of building something up and so, having equity in it, and a
sense of security. The following is my first and best answer to this
issue and the big difference between what I was looking into as a
young man:
This community concept would not be asking for any major investment
in either time or money from its participants. That is a big
difference! If one can just walk into a community and start
"working" just two days a week and in exchange received food
(and this food would be prepared) and
shelter and the rest of the time one is free to do what one would
like, I do not see how walking away from something like that one
would have any regrets, simply put. However of course, life is not
necessarily that simple.
What about building up a business and investments in infrastructure?
What about investments in agriculture? The first answer to those
questions is that it will take very little money to live in this
community. The second answer would be to personally "invest" in this
community carefully. In other words, going about it slowly and
perhaps with others, and perhaps not "investing" too heavily.
The issue about agriculture in particular, carries substantial
personal interest for me, for I can identify myself as a "farmer".
As a farmer I am well aware of the investment a farmer can make in
fields and infrastructure. I believe in this community those of us
who call ourselves farmers will be able to do some "commercial"
agriculture for personal gain on community provided land.
Without going into a very lengthy explanation, I believe this would
be the best way. The idyllic life of the "farmer" is, to some
degree, and maybe to a great degree, an illusion
(I should know, I did it for 20 years).
As is the illusion of the idyllic life of all, the craftsman,
artist, musician, businessman, homemaker, wife, and husband.
Not that there isn't some truth to these images, of course we can,
and we do find happiness in many of the situations we find ourselves
in. This vision for community however comes from not just
looking at our individual lives, but looking at the totality
of society, and the planet as a whole as well. Nevertheless, I
believe living in this way actually offers us our best shot at the
highest quality life possible for us as individuals.....as
well as being what's best for the "whole" of humanity right down to
the micro level of the individual communities that we live in.
And finally, it has to be said, this cannot be the final, and only
community. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that when people
become (or were always) fixated on a piece of land and a
name, and not on the principles which holds them together as a
community, and not into reaching out to others and helping, create
more communities, and making the world a secure place for all, the community
will eventually fail. Or, it will offer only a diminished quality of
life, and not the full potentiality to which human beings are
capable.
