My idea for an intentional community is as follows.
First I am envisioning a place where like kinds of people have chosen to go to and want to remain in order to build a community around themselves. Likely everyone will have a different idea for the reason that led them to want to create a sacred space such as this to live in but mine is just that I don’t believe that humans are meant to live with so many other people around them. Society at large certainly has its advantages but in my opinion those advantages are outweighed when the individual wishes to live a full life as is possible only when the environment is included to the fullest extent possible.
What I mean by ‘environment’ is basically just the immediate and distant surroundings of the individual. This would include other people, jobs, nature, and the structures that shelter the people. Only when a person can have a clear perspective of where they are in the world can the individual have as full of a life as possible. Necessarily the environment of a person needs to be included in the broad perspective of the individual because without such a perspective there are holes in what a person knows is happening around their self and what this means to the individual. This doesn’t mean that a person needs to know everything that every person is doing around them at all times but it does mean that the person needs to have an idea of what kind of persons they have around them.
Presently the society at large that we call our city, state, or country is largely a vague idea with many biases and unknowns. I have come to find that all people are capable and drawn to learn about and understand the other people around them and in most cases an appropriate distance is found between individuals. But in society at large there are far too many people and they are way too randomly dispersed for an individual to come to any clear and unbiased understanding of their environment.
For instance, in extreme cases where different individuals hold mutually exclusive opinions and vehemently defend them as with the example of abortion people form much of their idea of the other side based solely on their assumptions and what they are told by their like-minded comrades. Then interactions between the two sides become rapidly overheated. But if the individuals from either side got together and learned about the persons first as people then the interaction between ideas could happen in a much less violent way.
Moving on, in the intentional community that I am envisioning there would be few enough people in the immediate village that everyone should know everyone, if only at least by face. And when new people arrive they ought to be introduced to the whole of the immediate group town meeting style. If then there came to be so many people in the community that this became impossible to accomplish I believe that that would be the time for a group from the community to pick up and build in a distant location easily accessed by one another but far enough to give the other group a chance to have their space and govern themselves in their own way (generally following the guidelines of the next nearest village so as to avoid creating a rift between the two villages).
This then would allow the mind of the individual to know the people around them and then to also associate all the surplus people they don’t know in a more personal way with a different place that they can simply classify in a more general way. Such as the nearby village is friendly, more interesting, has relatives in it, is equal, or what-not.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of potential problems with a system like this is that for the most part the first generation of people involved in an intentional community such as this will have next to no experience in this sort of social infrastructure. Active members of the community will likely want to have either too much or too little control to promote the optimal health of the local community.
Then, aside from the social infrastructure there is the matter of economic infrastructure. I can’t imagine an intentional community surviving without retaining a use of money and a mind to the society at large outside of the intentional community. As such, problems with lack and surplus for barter between groups or individuals should not be a problem but a definite awareness as to the needs of the village would need to be kept in mind. Things such as food and water supply, medical resources, transportation, and storage would need to be planned for.
For instance, does the community grow its own food? How is the food shared or traded? Do all families have gainful employment outside the community or is there an elderly couple that will be fully reliant on the community for anything requiring money to purchase specific goods from the outside world? Who has the transportation to go to and from? What if the car breaks down? Do families buy things for themselves? Is there a general store? Does one person run to town with a list from the other members? All these questions are dependent on the size and kind of the intentional community but they are questions that someone needs to be asking and answering or else paradise might be lost in a moment because of some accident, illness, or shortage.
I am being just a little dramatic there because in my impression a group of people who choose to be involved with an intentional community out of heart and a drive and whom also choose who they allow to live around them (at least in the first generation) are all very likely to be more than aware of these things and quite capable of handling the answering of those questions in a timely manner. But even for those sorts of people it will help to have a basic idea of what may come as the next crisis to resolve. As while we may be living in a paradise of our own creation we will still be subjected to the hard and fast rules of reality, one of which seems to be that life is suffering and that the next dramatic crisis is always just around the corner.
Farming
Although it may not be obvious to everyone it is clear in my mind that a successful intentional community necessarily produces as much for itself as it possibly can. The first part of that (after shelter is secure) is to produce food and water. Likely, the water part of that equation is as easy as drilling a well large enough to bring water to more than enough people. A water tower may be a good idea.
But with farming there are more options for growth and improvement.
Even with a barter system, though, we'll still need citizens who work outside of the community in order to bring in a regular monetary income. This will be because we will need to pay taxes, emergency funds for food water repairs and the like, luxuries, amenities, and so on. A quick estimation assumes that about 30% of the community ought to be bringing in funds. A fair plan for dispersion of those funds is forthcoming.
Another growing possibility is that of biofuel. It should only take several thousand dollars in order to set up a biodiesel processing barn. And we could do that with oil, algae, manure, or compost. Although, the compost and manure will probably either go to our own crops or bag and sell it, depending on the business prowess of our community. Our agriculturalist ought to be able to determine what we need for our crops. I know that the land and water government office and test soil for cheap and offer free advice in the way of renewability and profitability.
But while we are growing crops, assuming the land is a surplus resource,
Necessary Skill Sets for a successful community
Veterinarian
Mechanic
Agriculturalist
Civil Mediator/Leader
Socialite/Civil Counselor
First I am envisioning a place where like kinds of people have chosen to go to and want to remain in order to build a community around themselves. Likely everyone will have a different idea for the reason that led them to want to create a sacred space such as this to live in but mine is just that I don’t believe that humans are meant to live with so many other people around them. Society at large certainly has its advantages but in my opinion those advantages are outweighed when the individual wishes to live a full life as is possible only when the environment is included to the fullest extent possible.
What I mean by ‘environment’ is basically just the immediate and distant surroundings of the individual. This would include other people, jobs, nature, and the structures that shelter the people. Only when a person can have a clear perspective of where they are in the world can the individual have as full of a life as possible. Necessarily the environment of a person needs to be included in the broad perspective of the individual because without such a perspective there are holes in what a person knows is happening around their self and what this means to the individual. This doesn’t mean that a person needs to know everything that every person is doing around them at all times but it does mean that the person needs to have an idea of what kind of persons they have around them.
Presently the society at large that we call our city, state, or country is largely a vague idea with many biases and unknowns. I have come to find that all people are capable and drawn to learn about and understand the other people around them and in most cases an appropriate distance is found between individuals. But in society at large there are far too many people and they are way too randomly dispersed for an individual to come to any clear and unbiased understanding of their environment.
For instance, in extreme cases where different individuals hold mutually exclusive opinions and vehemently defend them as with the example of abortion people form much of their idea of the other side based solely on their assumptions and what they are told by their like-minded comrades. Then interactions between the two sides become rapidly overheated. But if the individuals from either side got together and learned about the persons first as people then the interaction between ideas could happen in a much less violent way.
Moving on, in the intentional community that I am envisioning there would be few enough people in the immediate village that everyone should know everyone, if only at least by face. And when new people arrive they ought to be introduced to the whole of the immediate group town meeting style. If then there came to be so many people in the community that this became impossible to accomplish I believe that that would be the time for a group from the community to pick up and build in a distant location easily accessed by one another but far enough to give the other group a chance to have their space and govern themselves in their own way (generally following the guidelines of the next nearest village so as to avoid creating a rift between the two villages).
This then would allow the mind of the individual to know the people around them and then to also associate all the surplus people they don’t know in a more personal way with a different place that they can simply classify in a more general way. Such as the nearby village is friendly, more interesting, has relatives in it, is equal, or what-not.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of potential problems with a system like this is that for the most part the first generation of people involved in an intentional community such as this will have next to no experience in this sort of social infrastructure. Active members of the community will likely want to have either too much or too little control to promote the optimal health of the local community.
Then, aside from the social infrastructure there is the matter of economic infrastructure. I can’t imagine an intentional community surviving without retaining a use of money and a mind to the society at large outside of the intentional community. As such, problems with lack and surplus for barter between groups or individuals should not be a problem but a definite awareness as to the needs of the village would need to be kept in mind. Things such as food and water supply, medical resources, transportation, and storage would need to be planned for.
For instance, does the community grow its own food? How is the food shared or traded? Do all families have gainful employment outside the community or is there an elderly couple that will be fully reliant on the community for anything requiring money to purchase specific goods from the outside world? Who has the transportation to go to and from? What if the car breaks down? Do families buy things for themselves? Is there a general store? Does one person run to town with a list from the other members? All these questions are dependent on the size and kind of the intentional community but they are questions that someone needs to be asking and answering or else paradise might be lost in a moment because of some accident, illness, or shortage.
I am being just a little dramatic there because in my impression a group of people who choose to be involved with an intentional community out of heart and a drive and whom also choose who they allow to live around them (at least in the first generation) are all very likely to be more than aware of these things and quite capable of handling the answering of those questions in a timely manner. But even for those sorts of people it will help to have a basic idea of what may come as the next crisis to resolve. As while we may be living in a paradise of our own creation we will still be subjected to the hard and fast rules of reality, one of which seems to be that life is suffering and that the next dramatic crisis is always just around the corner.
Farming
Although it may not be obvious to everyone it is clear in my mind that a successful intentional community necessarily produces as much for itself as it possibly can. The first part of that (after shelter is secure) is to produce food and water. Likely, the water part of that equation is as easy as drilling a well large enough to bring water to more than enough people. A water tower may be a good idea.
But with farming there are more options for growth and improvement.
Even with a barter system, though, we'll still need citizens who work outside of the community in order to bring in a regular monetary income. This will be because we will need to pay taxes, emergency funds for food water repairs and the like, luxuries, amenities, and so on. A quick estimation assumes that about 30% of the community ought to be bringing in funds. A fair plan for dispersion of those funds is forthcoming.
Another growing possibility is that of biofuel. It should only take several thousand dollars in order to set up a biodiesel processing barn. And we could do that with oil, algae, manure, or compost. Although, the compost and manure will probably either go to our own crops or bag and sell it, depending on the business prowess of our community. Our agriculturalist ought to be able to determine what we need for our crops. I know that the land and water government office and test soil for cheap and offer free advice in the way of renewability and profitability.
But while we are growing crops, assuming the land is a surplus resource,
Necessary Skill Sets for a successful community
Veterinarian
Mechanic
Agriculturalist
Civil Mediator/Leader
Socialite/Civil Counselor