On the road since Gulf Shores, I have been spending these weeks trying to reach out to as many different people as possible in my daily life and connect on an emotional level with our humanity. It has been an amazing trip. Our silly, regional beliefs and ideas and politics can be put aside to reach out to that which we all have in us and then we will be building a better world.
Community is what will do it. It's what will make a better world. That and connecting with people in any meaningful way.
This summer we started a Facebook page called Gulf Shores Sustainability. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1851642038394987/
We have over 200 people on it now! Wow. That's more then enough for 2 intentional communities. It's theorized that our brains are this big so we can intimately keep track of 150 people.
After that communities fragment. Amish communities split in two at that number. People just start making a separate clique at that point.
But this is a sustainability site, not necessarily one for making intentional community...maybe you're not so interested in that.
I think that intentional community is a prerequisite for sustainability. Daniel Quinn is a writer that had ideas about this and spoke of how every animal has a social order. http://www.ishmael.org/welcome.cfm Wolves have their pack, geese a flock, and humans aren't left out of this. Humans have the tribe.
All through the majority of the history of the species we had tribe and sustainable community. So that's easy enough, lets team up.
Societies can be based off of two things: competition or cooperation. Generally societies based off of competition have more mental disorder and treat their women and children worse. Societies based off of cooperation generally have less mental disorder and treat their women and children better.
..and no kidding. of course we would be happier hanging out with our friends more often. With few exceptions, generally what isolates you is going to make you less happy and what brings you in connection will make you happier.
Humanity is misbehaving on a grand grand scale right now. But to judge humanity for how it acts now is like judging someone for how they act when they are trapped in a locked room alone that is slowly filling up with water. People are cut off from each other.
We need this now. Not just because the planet is in danger, but for our own happiness and sweet, sweet freedom. And when i say the planet is in danger, that is a gross understatement. What I mean is it is on a direct trajectory for destruction unless we change the course of society... and change it we will. or have a damn well fun time trying.
You can even make community for completely selfish reasons. Even if you're getting filthy rich while you are alone, you're not going to achieve mental health with that either.
The super rich make this very evident. You need people. That's just the animal you are. A zillion years ago if you were too much of a loner then you would probably get eaten by something alone in the woods.
And it is so much more fun together. Aside from all that abstract conceptual crap I'm talking about now. We had a pretty cool drum circle. Maybe you were there?
Imagine if we were out from underneath the oppressive foot of debt, bills, and rent and in a close enough proximity to hangout and have the free time to accomplish real things. Human things. Like the arts- make music together, start an artists' collective, write poems, grow healthy food to eat that we grew ourselves and know exactly where it came from, practice circus arts, make hand crafts, engage in deeper thought and live an examined life, ..the only kind of life worth living as they say. And all of the other amazing and beautiful things that we are capable of when we actually have the time to learn, grow, explore, develop, and connect with one another.
We can build beautiful Eco homes from the abundant, non toxic materials that are all around us. Homes that are creative and beautiful and that inspire us.
To whatever degree this happens or doesn't is fine. I'm out traveling right now. Ill be back soon enough but that doesn't matter. This isn't my Facebook page or any idea that I solely came up with. This is just one guy ranting here. Really it is your sustainability page. Post what you want. Make whatever happen that you want. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1851642038394987/
What makes me, a semi nomadic person, even a good candidate to help organize this? Maybe I'm not. You are. But really, the best place to start community is wherever you are. Love and connection and reaching out.
