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Do you have a list of them? I would like to read more of these communities. what are the minimum requirements as in cost and resources. I am on disability, am a Gaian. and looking for a community that is more along my lines, No mandated electricity, simple living... etc...
Not really. People generally don't like being crowded together. These communities will probably have some appeal in urban areas to single twentysomethings, but that's about it.
I disagree about the crowding. There are too many cities that challenge that concept. I would consider one of these communities if they didn't mind a couple of used cars and a forge in the back yard.
If people want to grow veggies together and dine together, great. It's not for me.
What I do think is the wave of the future is a trend toward more home gardening, community garden plots, farmers markets, and coops (weekly delivery of veggies that people sign up for).
These days I am incorporating more raw, green foods into my diet. Wish I could go "cold turkey", or "cold veggie" as it were, but it will be a slower process for me. Green juice and smoothies for breakfast for now. Starting my first garden this spring.
Sounds like the communes of the '60's. The reason that they didn't work (except for a handful) is that there are always hard workers who start to think that they are pulling most of the load, shirkers who want to live off of other folks' hard work, and leader-type A's who want to run things and profit merely because of their leadership abilities. The reasons for folks being drawn to such a lifestyle are many and varied - but the reasons they fall apart are very precise.
It is the natural, human inclination to want things, to desire pay for their efforts; be it pay in mometary value, payment in respect, payment in necessary goods - and the more one learns about, experiences, and works on a project, the more one expects to get paid. . The sociological survival pyramid has never been proven wrong - humans require air, then water, then food, then clothing/protection from the elements, shelter... and on and on it goes, and further and further up. Communities like this start to fall apart when people's WANTS, not necessarily their NEEDS, are not being met. I have seen even basic, communal gardens go rapidly to he__ when one guy spends more time and effort, and his plot looks so much better than the rest, and then there is jealousy and people either take from it or try to disrupt, even destroy it. Things that are "given" or freely shared are not taken care of nor appreciated, even if those things are 'paid for' by garnisheed dollars like taxes. Have you ever seen a private pool vs a tax-payer-paid-for one? The people who use the "free" pool don't take care of it, even vandalize it, because it costs them 'nothing'. The private ones are all about each individual being responsible for it - because they have to pay for it!
Sorry, but unless there is personal, individual, and responsible ownership, and free and fair trade where each trader gets something of intrinsic value that he or she wants and/or needs, it all falls down. I'll happily agree to trade my eggs for your wheat, and we can both make bread. Otherwise, I just might think that a dozen of my eggs are worth a Kruggerand, while a bushel of your wheat is only worth a nickel.
I think that Eco-Villages like this will become trendy again for awhile, just like the hippie communes of the 60's & 70's. A great many of them will go the way that SCGranny describes. It reasons to stand that many Idealist would flock to places like this; but unfortunately they tend to be "head" people more than "body" people... they think rather than do. There's nothing wrong with that intrinsically, but when you're trying to be a self-supporting communal effort you actually need more doers than thinkers or nothing gets done. Also, you get into that nasty situation of leaders and followers and then things start to fall apart. Plus, people grow and change and find that their priorities are different... it may be fine to live that way when you're young and unecumbered, but once you have a family, etc all bets are off.
The only way I can foresee a real commune/Eco-Village working long term is if it's populated with independent, self-sufficient folks who both think and do. Everyone has their own private spaces for the majority of their work. Everyone takes care of their own basic needs and then barters their surplus for other's surplus because everyone has a slightly different skill set. For instance, one person is great with animals and makes artisan cheese, another person is a fine woodworker; so person A barters a wheel of cheese for a set of person B's wooden bowls. There would be community areas for gatherings and such, but everyone would have some vested interest in them... ultimately, those that used them most would become responsible for routine maintenance with the others only pitching in as needed. All money would still be the private property of the individual, but certain dues would be collected to pay for the land and property taxes, etc. In that system, the people are a community of self-supporting individuals who have a higher quality of living because they've joined forces... not everyone working equally for the common good on communal property and projects.
Personally, I couldn't stand to live in a conventional commune or Eco-Village because too much of that touchy-feelie crap and close quarters drives me insane. In such a case, I'd function much better sequestered on the back 40 doing something on my own to provide my share of something. Hence, I'd do much better on the 2nd version -- doing my own thing on my own space supporting myself and pitching in when needed.
Sounds like the communes of the '60's. The reason that they didn't work (except for a handful) is that there are always hard workers who start to think that they are pulling most of the load, shirkers who want to live off of other folks' hard work, and leader-type A's who want to run things and profit merely because of their leadership abilities. The reasons for folks being drawn to such a lifestyle are many and varied - but the reasons they fall apart are very precise.
You exactly describe why socialism / wealth redistribution never works. Those who do will continue to do - up to the point where they do all the work and get none of the rewards. And yes, the shirkers you describe will try to take and take, until the doers stop doing. And the leaders you describe as profiting "merely" due to their leadership abilities expect to do so not because they are merely leading, but because they are leading. Do you want Captain Sully in the cockpit, or a shirker if your life is on the line?
I just choose to keep my own house really clean, buy my own groceries and prefer not to share any of it with other families.
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