Reforming Communities

Part 3: Forming a Community

Forming these collectives that can act as a bulwark against the worst excesses of modernity described in the previous posts is perhaps the biggest hurdle for those that take this path will have to overcome. Once formed, communities with solid foundations tend to self-perpetuate (particularly if they have high fertility rates).

The reasons for the difficulty is – again both material and non-material – the first is that buying land or houses or setting up a community is expensive, even if eventually this will lessen the cost of living, the initial outlay will be immense. The resources question though would be swiftly overcome if the founders of such a community were numerous and at least of average means. The two-income trap is so-called because it expresses the fact that one income is not enough to live today, but 10 would definitely be enough.  

But with most communities (including the hippy communes of past) their demise was rarely caused by a lack of resources, but due to interpersonal reasons. The people that form the community are the most important aspect of the endeavour and the foresight (both in philosophical and practical matters) of those that found it.

But in this more than most endeavours it might just be a case of build it (or at least plan to build it) and they will come.

Make a Plan 

Think about what core values you want the community to hold, what the effect of holding those values would be (the vision/philosophy) how this would be preserved through the generations and what organisational structure would be best to give practical effect to this.

This will be a rough draft and may need to be debated and honed by the others that start to join your mission to form a community.

Find Your People

The main impediment to this is that the people that are interested may not live anywhere near you. There may have to be a compromise as to where to carry this scheme out. As noted above the main factor today that makes us feel isolated is the fact that our neighbours don’t share much in common with us, we are so perfectly shaped by the internet and media we consume that people can differ drastically even within a local area.

We want to stop that trend, but first we must find our people, and this is where social media can be used to thwart its hold over us. We can find our people online and then move into IRL communities. Either way the key piece is to find our people in any way possible, use every tool at our disposal, with the goal of forming a community offline (at least eventually).

If people already have strong in the flesh bonds based on values this can be a starting point. If you have a partner, then you propose starting a multi-family household with other couples you could share with. For people that already have a strong family unit can approach the other generations to see whether they would be interested in an intergenerational household. Likewise, if you have a close friend, or any other extremely solid and intimate bond. These all can be used as the basis for a community from which you can find others to join.

Final Thoughts

There is a great need for a re-invigoration of civil society both as a power that is by nature both devolved and flexible. It both acts as a buffer against Big sources of power (like State and corporate power) and the individual but also can be a force on the individual. This aspect has caused communities to get a bad name, but the positive influence they can assert on its member is something that is sorely needed today where the most pressing problems are caused and exacerbated by the lack of interpersonal pressure and strength of bonds.

It also cures the thing that most people report as the greatest infliction today: loneliness.

This may be a bold statement on my part, but I truly believe that the recreation of local communities is the single most important task for us at the moment.