could you live in a self sufficent community or commune

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

not one of religious conotation, but a community where you do for yourself as well as others do for themselves, and what you are unable to do you barter with skills they have with skills you have.

such as farming, plumbing, electrical, animal care etc.

dependance on sources out side the community would be very minimal.

power produced independant sources of water, wind and solar.

The community doesn't have to be darkage amish style, just slef sustainable and interactive where everyne knows everyone and does for each other.

All laws, punishments, politics decided as a community not as two or three in power.

what do you think could you handle it?

 

[curious2c]

Hmmm...sounds interesting, but I don't think that I would like it too well. Somewhere in there getting along with others would soon mean a certain amount of conforming to their beliefs. If it were a group who believed just lke me...then...well, it would become stagnant and soon die. One of the reasons that communes like what you described died out in the sixties and seventies. Too many influences that could not be controlled overcame the origional idea forming the group in the first place.

However...it would be interesting if it could work.

 

[sexy-girl]

only if it was full of lesbians


being serious no i couldn't i like being part of the world and seeing the world ... i don't wish to shut myself away from that

 

[android1966]

I lived on a kibbutz for a while, which is mostly how you describe barring having it's own power supply. So I guess, yes I could.

 

[Killswitch]

DONT DRINK THE KOOL AID!!!!!!!!!

 

[morninggirl5]

Definitely not. I'd miss too many of my conveniences.

 

[Guest]

Can we have a TV and Intenet porn?

Then I can.

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

curious2c,

In my utopia comune, freedom of religion would be allowed, everyone could worship however they choose to or not to, the only restriction is you could go to everyone trying to convert them, but people would be allowed to come to you and visit and see and possibly join what you believe if they liked it.

Also it would have to be worshiped on your own property in house or in yard, no public place of worship lest one feel the other type is getting a bigger space porvided for by the other.

education would be public but parental influence invovled with set standards.

all decisions wold be by public vote/referendum, nothing made without the concent of the community.

sexy-girl,

Freedom of sexuality would be fully allowed but as with religion it wouldn't be forced upon anyone, but all could partake in what they wanted provided it was publically voted accepteable or unacceptable, such as fringe fetishes beast, child, other sick stuff i would hope to have voted against, and consentual.

Also you would be more than allowed to go outside the commune, just the commune would be your home base still with all the luxuries of the world without having to worry about some of the worlds issues hangups.

android1966,

That sounds so kool, you should share what your able or allowed to sometime on the board.

Killswitch,

ROTFLOL, thank you I needed a good injection of humour this morning/afternoon.

morninggirl5,

surely you could learn to without, but there is access to the outside world as i said above

yes we could have those, because I am sure we would have excess product such as the amish and other communties do and be able to buy community cable access for internet or television, though we would have a community independant phone system, with a couple central located phones to the outside ioncase of emergencies we are unable to handle ourselves.

 

[morninggirl5]

curious2c,

In my utopia comune, freedom of religion would be allowed, everyone could worship however they choose to or not to, the only restriction is you could go to everyone trying to convert them, but people would be allowed to come to you and visit and see and possibly join what you believe if they liked it.

Also it would have to be worshiped on your own property in house or in yard, no public place of worship lest one feel the other type is getting a bigger space porvided for by the other.

education would be public but parental influence invovled with set standards.

all decisions wold be by public vote/referendum, nothing made without the concent of the community.



morninggirl5,

surely you could learn to without, but there is access to the outside world as i said above

yes we could have those, because I am sure we would have excess product such as the amish and other communties do and be able to buy community cable access for internet or television, though we would have a community independant phone system, with a couple central located phones to the outside ioncase of emergencies we are unable to handle ourselves.

I know myself well enough to know i'd never survive. And all those parents in my classroom..... ugh, ugh, ugh.

I'm definitely a "lock my door and let me teach" teacher.

 

[Aquila]

Id end up killing everyone.
Every community needs its homicidal maniac.

 

[honeylick]

DONT DRINK THE KOOL AID!!!!!!!!!

yes... its sounding a lilttle jimjones-ish

-shudder-

 

[RosevilleCAguy]

Sure. Provided our primary means of self support was pillaging and plundering other such communities.....

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

I know myself well enough to know i'd never survive. And all those parents in my classroom..... ugh, ugh, ugh.

I'm definitely a "lock my door and let me teach" teacher.

I am not saying the parents would be in the classroom, but the teachers and the parents would get together in a community meeting and create a set ciriculume, of standards that both want met in the education of the children, and then the teachers would be responsible in the classroom for meeting thier side of the standards and the parents in the home to be responsible for thier portion of the standards as agrreed upon.


Aquila,

hey its my idea, I get the good and fun job


honeylick,

no jim jonesy here its a community run by the community not me or any individual.


RosevilleCAguy,

i don't know about other such communities but what about the regular ones we rape and pillage, though I would prefer a community we develop and sustain ourselves, not so much monitarirly but by our skills and work and effort.

 

[honeylick]

...honeylick,

no jim jonesy here its a community run by the community not me or any individual.

ok... how 'bout

"animal farm 2k2"




'alpha male' behavior would rear it's head before too long...

 

[unclej]

i probably couldn't live in a commuinty that was established to be exactly as you describe because you'd have to make a sizeable commitment to a community like that. i'm a very private person and temendously selfish of my time and energy.

i live in a happy medium type community now. it's a small villiage with lots of retired folks, lots of weekend tourists and a lot of service people like me. i know a great many people in town and we do, indeed barter. i built a deck for a friend a few years ago in trade for a used ski boat. this same friend is in the air conditioning business and bartered service for service when building his house and saved a bundle.

the main benefit of my community over your proposed community, in my opinion only, is that i can go home and hide out and not be involved in the daily running of the villiage unless i choose to.

 

[Sillyman]

Only if it's full of lesbians.

Frankly I'm worthless to society and in any less forgiving time or place I would have been stoned to death by now.

 

[peachykeen]

Mr. keen and I have talked about this very thing with some friends of ours at length. It's an intriguing concept and I could see us making and honest go of it

On the other hand though I am such an urban animal. I think really we'll ultimately end up focussing on creating a 'community within a community' sort of thing - Mr K is working on plans for once we move back to the US, when we renovate the brownstone, to put in solar panels and generally 'greenify' the place. Then maybe we can look into expanding that within our neighborhood. There are already charter schools in our area and some smaller schools that are more community-based and I'm hoping to get more involved in that again when we go back.

So I'm in love with both ideas, really - big country self sufficiency, and with making city life the best it can be. Tough choice, for me.

 

[Nefarious]

Up for a little reading?

B.F. Skinner, the father of Behavioral Psychology (and the inventor of the little box with a lever that let rats stimulate their brains) wrote a book just after World War II that covered this very topic Todd. It was titled Walden II, and I'm sure that it can still be found in print somewhere.

I made an effort during High School to read all of the Utopias. "Brave New World", "1984", "Shangri-La", "Erewhon", etc. Walden II is a blueprint for a comunity that can exist here and now (even though it was written over 50 years ago). It goes into topics as diverse as the an individual's responsibility to society, hero worship, and the fallacy of politics. It's a narrative of a skeptic's journey through a working Utopia, and his realization that it is NOT smoke and mirrors. Give it a try.

 

[Todd-'o'-Vision]

Re: Up for a little reading?

B.F. Skinner, the father of Behavioral Psychology (and the inventor of the little box with a lever that let rats stimulate their brains) wrote a book just after World War II that covered this very topic Todd. It was titled Walden II, and I'm sure that it can still be found in print somewhere.

I made an effort during High School to read all of the Utopias. "Brave New World", "1984", "Shangri-La", "Erewhon", etc. Walden II is a blueprint for a comunity that can exist here and now (even though it was written over 50 years ago). It goes into topics as diverse as the an individual's responsibility to society, hero worship, and the fallacy of politics. It's a narrative of a skeptic's journey through a working Utopia, and his realization that it is NOT smoke and mirrors. Give it a try.

thank you for the info, another book to add to my growing pile of must reads

my local library loves lit without realizing it

 

[AardRiven]

Only if my slutty neighbours, which are all ex-Playboy and Penthouse centerfolds have neverending orgies and in-between they cook and clean for me while I'm passed out.

On more serious note, dude, you wouldnt like conforming to other peoples beliefs in amount required in your scenario. It just wouldnt work, and if it did on the outside, inside you would be lot less happy.

 

[SINthysist]

I could handle it until we got things turned around. Get a little niche high-tech technology going (the more industrious of the basket-weavers, especially the NAGS, will want something to "stimulate" their potential ), get some theme businesses (Like the Dick Clark Franchises, Sonic/Classic Car Rentals, etc.) to come in and invest, and market the place to tourists as sort of a 60's style Woodstockian sleepover. Locate it next to Indian land (with Casino) and I see all sort of spin-off marketing, too. There would certainly be a Beverly Hillbillies Theme Park complete with smoked crawdads (if you can do that sort of thing on INDIAN land !).

I think we could sell this Todd.

Maybe your best idea ever...