Decision making will have be worked out by the community
itself, but
obviously will entail some sort of consensus,
sociocracy and committees,
small groups and individuals given authority and permission by the whole community (within
defined parameters) to attend to minor decisions, responsibilities, duties
and actions.
People like to work
together for some things and some of the time; and can be very effective
working together. The assumption here is that unity over
a few basic and simple (yet profound) ethics and a few, simple (yet
crystal clear) goals will help guide the decision making process, as well as
insure the kind of unity that makes functioning in this way possible.
This consensus decision making process clearly distinguishes between big decisions, and
little decisions which are of
relative unimportance and would be taken care of by individual work
committees, teams or individuals. Members will have to know the difference.
Yet, if we are
united over meaningful ethics and clear goals, that difference will be clear.
The idea is for the group who initially makes
this community happen......to work hard at coming up with a design
or a system (and a few basic rules regarding basic
considerations, obligations and respect) that has been extensively thought out, tries to
anticipate as many potential "issues" as possible, and
have ways and means for dealing with them.
One of the reasons people are not interested in "group" endeavors is
because of the extremely difficult and painful process of "making
decisions together". One aspect of the community "design" may be to
come up with a system which minimizes this need for "group
decisions". Everyone knows how differently people can think, even
when looking at the same issue. That is why the ethics and goals are
so emphasized in this proposal. It is being suggested that
practically any "issue" regarding design or practice in day-to-day
community functioning could and should always be directed back to
these simple and basic directives.
Please note:
This concept for
this community allows for so much
individual freedom, creativity and work, that the natural desire for self expression would not need
to fulfill itself in decisions that affect the community. A very
common downfall for many cooperative/communal attempts or endeavors.
