Gaian Communities
Now we are in an either/or of renters (increasing poverty) or suburban home ownership (increasing isolation/defensiveness) High infrastructure costs fuel taxes which fuel cost of living increases. Defensive isolation for homeowners : increased stress, poverty of social capital. Povertization of the those less careful in securing property in ownership, including many simply more focussed on their work or study in life than in securing property. The solution is in communities of homes distributed on large ex-agricultural properties, allowing enough room for privacy of the households, but also permacultured food production and wastewater treatment for maximal self-sufficiency, preservation or regrowth of areas of natural indigenous biomes, and common 'extended garden' spaces. These communities do not have to be as cut off from the social discourse as their antecedants may have been, because with access to the Net, those who have chosen this way to live will be able to remain part of the society's discourse and information markets. Creative production and info farming can also become a cash flow in to the community from the outside world at large, without its members having to commute to cities etc.. Benefits to the rest of the area: Reduction in infrastructure costs to the de jure community, potential net inflow of capital to region, increase of social capital, reduction in crime, health care and administrative costs. If things get much worse, and civil order breaks down , gated patrolled communities in dangerous sub-urban areas will be very common. Not a great vision for the future! In contrast, living in a biophiliac, that is nature-friendly, land, with one's immediate needs supplied by the land, and living in a nature reserve with those one has chosen, rather than 'neighbors' you don't want to meet, holds the possibility of truly creating our actual day to day living environment and atmosphere according to the wisdom we have gained in our lives, building a manifestation of our understanding of what is good and healthy, rather than simply learning new ways to cope with an 'external' world which is abrasive, toxic, confused, brain-dead, wasteful, uninspired, unappreciative of life, homicidal, trivial, distracting, distressing, and draining, and in deep denial, among other things. If things get really bad, and it's Road Warrior out there, (which has been predicted: see The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan), these communities, hidden away in nature, connected by satellite, will carry the torch thru the dark times, they will maintain the libraries of Wisdom we have gathered, they will maintain the understanding which they have achieved and pass it on to the next generation, growing up in harmony and health in the forest reserve. These communities will be like the monasteries of Europe which kept learning alive through the dark ages, which maintained the wisdom transmissions, such as they were, which offered an oasis of peace, harmony, and healing to sensitives, visionaries, and everyone who needed it. (And there will be monks writing illuminated manuscripts they shall call 'web pages'..) On a more positive note, these linked communities of health and harmony will be creating paths for the human future, pathways which our children will choose among to carry them forward and past the jaws of the socio-ecological disaster which looms ahead.
EcoVillages Conference at Findhorn
The Federation of Damanhur . . . Rysovo
Gorbachev calls for New Values for Civilisation
World Bank switches wealth assessments criteria to natural resource base
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