Post by The Founder on Feb 5, 2014 16:46:23 GMT -5
In every conversation I have discussing the issues of today’s world I’m always amazed by how the solutions to our social issues could be solved by small intentional communities.
The communities themselves couldn’t solve a thing but what a group of people are capable of achieving, within the structure of an intentional community, is endless.
The difficulty in the societal structure we have today is that it is one giant mono-culture. It becomes extremely difficult for an individual or even group of individuals to break out of the societal norms that make up that culture. Why, you may ask, would one want to go a different route then that of the norm. Well, for starters, over time, people begin to realize that the end goal of the American Dream isn’t all that its cracked up to be.
For instance, I have a friend who recently graduated from Engineering school in Southern California. He interned for about a year and then began working for the same company as an employee thereafter. He’s been working there for a year and a half and with $150,000 in student loans he’s dependent on his job. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but what he’s realized is that now that he owes all of that money he’s stuck in a system with no way out.
Once you have the job you need the car and then you need the house and it keeps spiraling out of control, one thing leading to another. The paradigm that most people are stuck in is one of consumption through continuous over-extension of where we’re truly at; needing to have and be more. We are lead to believe we need more and more, and so, we over-extend ourselves believing that we’ll one day have enough. Unfortunately so long as we play the “game” the “house” will always win.
Small intentional community living is a new paradigm. One in which the people who make up the community can create their own paradigm. On ones own it is extremely difficult to create a new paradigm of living because it seems like you’re always fighting against whats normal. Its like swimming upstream; everything seems to be more difficult. Our entire system of education, health care, and society itself is geared towards serving the norm. For those who find themselves outside the norm their only option is to conform. However, when you step outside the stream you can find a stream of your own going in whatever direction you like.
The sole motivating factor keeping so many people locked in a paradigm that is so skewed is fear. I believe that if people did not fear not having, whatever it is they think they need, our societal priorities would change over night and with those changes would come a new paradigm that brought about a simpler world and ultimately a much happier one.