Q: Will I have sufficient income if I join this community?
A: If your housing and food are provided for with a few hours of labor
per month, you won't need much income. If in addition we share
resources such as cars, appliances, computers and other machines, and
childcare; you won't need much income. Our utilities will be low since
we will have solar cells. All these things will be provided for you
either free (food and housing) or at minimal cost. If you so desire
you can spend the rest of your time making money, which you can use
for your personal ends. But we hope that you find more socially
productive pursuits than making money, or at least that making money
is a creative and productive activity first, with income generation as
a side benefit. Some people will choose to get involved in jobs that
have no redeeming features besides generating income--we hope you
don't do it too often. Time is too precious to waste.
Q: Will I have an interesting enough life if I live in a rural community?
A: City life has a lot to offer. One can find some event most nights.
Living rurally, it will be up to us to create culture and make life
interesting. This should be easier, if there are a lot of members, and
if they have time to create culture rather than working all day on
something that drains their energy and further draining it with their
commute so the only thing they have energy for when they get home is
to be entertained. Artists and scientists should also be helpful in
creating an interesting life for the community, if they share their
talents.
Q: Will I have privacy?
A:We know that some people may want more privacy than others. After
the main communal spaces are completed, members will be free to build
their own private living spaces on their own time and dollar.
Many have had bad experiences in college in dorms. But recall that
the dorm-style rooms will be provided FREE. There is no rent, no
joining fee and no other monthly fees except taxes and bought food or other communal items.
Additionally, no one will berequired to share rooms with persons that they dislike or with
whom they are uncomfortable.
We'll also have separate shower and bathroom stalls.
Q: Wouldn't living in this sort of community be too much work?
A: If you have this concern, you are suffering from information
overload and possibly ADD :-) Read our values and also how much time
it would take to provide our basic needs. However, the initial buildup of infrastructure
is expected to take alot of work.
Q: What about interpersonal conflict?
A: Conflict is inevitable. We will have a proactive approach to avoid
it, and technologies to deal with it when it arises. We will have more
on this soon. We also hope to screen out immature or dysfunctional
people with our values and active membership selection process. Eventually
we hope to provide a space for people who are less stable, but at the beginning
such people could be too big of a strain.
Q: Is this going to be a safe place for me (and my children)?
A: We sure hope so, but there is no reason for you to believe that
before getting to know and trust us first.
Q: Would I (or my children) have any educational and professional
development opportunities
A: We anticipate many highly educated and skilled people who want to
share their knowledge and skills to join us. Some might say that the
whole concept of sending your child to college is thinking in the old
paradigm. If education happens on an ongoing basis and is valued in
the community (not just as a means to a career but as an end in
itself), why would you need to spend a lot of money on a university?
One reason, which is not related to the quality of the education, is
that kids may need to experience other parts of the world and be away
from their origins. This would also be possible for people who can
have a business or job that earns them personal income. There would
be no requirement that people cannot leave the community to engage in
travel and learning opportunities.
Q: Beauty is important to me. Your buildings sound like a prison. Does
your community care about beauty?
A: Yes. We care about beauty and want to be surrounded by both natural
and man-made beauty. As Emma Goldman said: "If I can't dance, I don't
want to be part of your revolution!" But we also care about our time
and sometimes are willing to make compromises to have less beauty or
less of certain kinds of beauty, for more time. We want people with
highly developed aesthetic sensibilities to join us and be part of our
communal building design team. Even beyond the community buildings, we
want them to create beauty for the community and even just themselves
with THEIR personal time, as long as they don't expect everyone to
share their priorities, and as long as they are not exploiting other
people's time or destroying nature to achieve their vision of beauty.
We are not proposing simple buildings because we do not care about the
joy of living in beautiful places. We are doing it because we want
free time. If one values time (that includes time used to create art)
then how one's living quarters look like must be considered at the
same time as the time and money needed to build and maintain. For
those who find great expression and joy in beautiful surroundings,
one's free time may be spent achieving this.
Q: Will I be able to find a romantic/intimate partner if I am living
in a rural community?
A: We've heard (or read about) this concern from persons living in
existing intentional communities. Even those who have many creative
outlets and interests may get depressed if their basic physical need
for sex and emotional need for intimacy are not met. The problem in
finding a mate in a small group is that there may not be anyone
available whom one is compatible with. One way to deal with this is to
find a mate over the internet, or somewhere else outside the
community. We think that being partnered is important for the well
being of many individuals and hence the community as a whole. Hence
many successful traditional communities have put much energy into
pairing people up instead of leaving it up to chance (but we don't
plan to match people up, and will leave it up to individuals). Another
way is to become celibate, although I have my doubts if this works.
Q: Will I be able to have sufficient healthcare if I join this community?
A: This is one of the most common concerns, especially among older
people. While we are not going to provide health insurance for our
members, we do hope that the food we eat and the life we lead will
lead to better health (see: The Wheel of Health by G.T. Wrench).
People are free to purchase their own health insurance or put aside
money for that purpose (self insurance). We also hope that there will
be enough healers (both western and eastern types) who can provide
basic and some emergency health care.
Q: What if I get stuck in my old age, with no equity?
A: I first heard this one from a Twin Oaker who left with his family
to start a life and business. First, if people are free to earn money
that is theirs, they can accumulate equity. The equity will not be in
land or houses though. Second, people could keep some or all the money
they have before coming into the community. It is hoped that the
founding members give as much as they can towards initial expenses of
land purchase, buildings, and machinery; but it is not required.
Third, if more communities like ours sprout up, people could move
between them.
Q. Isn't it true that communes have not worked in the past?
A: This is an overstatement. There are lots of communes in the US and
other places today (www.ic.org). However they have not been a big
social influence on the status quo, and there have been many communes
that failed. We think this happened for a few (now) well-understood
reasons (not in order of importance):
1. Not enough planning
2.Going into debt
3.Minimal skills in conflict resolution
4. Minimal skills in communion and transcendence technologies
5.Too much work and hardship
6.Not enough income generated
7.No clear, definite values, or values/mission and other
agreements too vague or not written down
8.Too fast a growth--new members do not agree with old values
9. Not enough privacy, or other boundary issues
10.No or bad legal structure
11. Too communistic (efficiency and incentive low)
12.Too individualistic (efficiency and communion low)
13People can't meet their needs for a primary partner
14 Life not interesting enough (too few people, too much work,
lack of values about learning and creativity)
15.Focus on heavy drug use or other unproductive activities.
We think we've addressed all of these (study the website and see
if you agree). The problem is not what hasn't worked before, but what
we are not aware of that will present us with challenges in the
future. If you can think of a problem we've overlooked, please let us
know!
See Diane Christian's book Creating a Life Together, for more analysis.
Cartoons about some of these (attempt at humor)
