Though these proposals may differ on specific ideas regarding implementation, the essence or
ultimate goal is very similar, such as sharing major resources and doing some
cooperative work together. (In our case, the "required community work" is primarily
about food and housing) We all place high valve on the sanctity of the
individual and on his and her personal
freedom, happiness, liberation and fulfillment.
These specific projects are
also mentioned because they are of the size and scale believed necessary
to be efficient, as well as be socially, or culturally self
sufficient......in a given location. Yet, this is in no way a call for isolationism.
These are actual proposals for intentional
communities:
These below express a similar point of view be at
philosophic, economic or spiritual.
Also:
http://www.soulprogress.org/
particularly.....
"Toward Enlightened Community".
This small (only 60 pages)
online book on
intentional community is a must read for anyone seriously interested in learning
more
about cooperative living.
Of course one only has to go to the
www.ic.org website to see hundreds
of ideas regarding "intentional community". Most are not, in my
opinion, communities at all. They are "centers", organic
farms, and a few people who have land and (attempt) to share it;
most are only a few people, or upwards to 10 to 20. In my
opinion, there is very little that is appealing about what is out
there. Not only are the sizes unappealing (for a number
of different reasons), they hardly represent any significant change in
consumption/production efficiency, or, resource/energy/food
independence, particularly
social......except for what might be considered the more intimate
"family" scale social paradigm.
The following
quote is something which
recently came into my view:
"On the other hand, there is nothing
intrinsically revolutionary about autonomous self-centered
communities of 100 or 1000
(as I
said, most are between five and 20 people) well
meaning people. These are just as easily manipulated into working as
a counter revolutionary self-indulgent tendency. Just flip through
the list of communities in the Federation of Intentional Communities
Directory to see what I mean. Contained therein is every conceivable
small issue, self indulged collection of misguided social formations
imaginable. The smaller one’s focus, the more susceptible one is to
manipulation. This is the same way that the issues of “local
control” and “constituency organizing” so often turn inward and are
used as a battering ram against what could be the combined interests
of the population. It took the Wobblies in the 1920’s to redefine
the scope of union organizing to even begin to move things in the
right direction."
