On this blog, it is interesting to me that we talk about the environmental problems that face us. We talk about new structures and new paradigms, and we talk about how to handle certain deep problems facing our society such as transportation — but to me one huge basic answer to all of these questions is the urban commune.
One of the conclusions that has been largely reached by several people on this blog is that the answers, some feel, do not devolve to the traditional issues of national politics. That, in other words, to really solve the deep systemic problems inherent in the American political system is to address the local issues each of us face.
This is not an either/or — to say that we must address sustainable living and engender a better model for living is not therefore in direct opposition to the ideas involved in how to change our political system for the better. However, a gradual realization has dawned that there is a yin/yang relationship in terms of top-down political action versus bottom-up action. If we live in a certain manner as to make our government respond to that way of living, they will. Most of us work for corporations. Most of us have interests involved in basic living that are or may be at odds with what we think would be a better model of living for the future. On the other hand, if our politicians have constituents who have already changed their way of living in some degree — that if they adopt, for example, community living as a way of life without their assistance, it would be more in our politicans interests to cater to those constituencies that have already been pre-created.
It strikes me that we talk very little about the most basic problem facing all of us — that is, how to live in such a way as to weather the crises confronting our society and how to emerge whole.
I have lived, very briefly, on a commune. It is not my purpose, however, to put myself up as an expert of any kind on this subject. My experience was long enough to gather and internalize some of the concepts, but short enough that I don’t consider myself well endowed to do anything on the level of proselytizing.
It is more my purpose to open a conversation on this subject. If we on this blog wish to address New Structures, a new way, therefore, to address our problems, what can be more basic than to talk about how we live, and to think about and contribute our ideas about communal living as an opener to that very basic conversation?