I retired in 2000, and began following and manifesting my dreams. Among other things I had been an activist in San Francisco, feeding the homeless in front of the government buildings and getting arrested for giving free organic food without a license, of which there was no process to get one in the nineties. I lived in an intentional community on the border of Germany and Holland for five years and then founded a mostly latino, artist community in Dec. 2012 in which I currently live in Vilcabamba, Ecuador.
I would like to share with you what I have learned during this process. There are many variations when it comes to intentional communities or eco villages, which is essentially the same thing. But the two main distinctions are communities that share land and responsibilities, and the kind of community in which you simply buy a piece of the property, say one acre and that is your space to do as you like as long as you abide by the community rules. Rules that are essentially to respect one's neighbors, not to make too much noise, etc. These kinds of communities can agree to share tools, share a community space, etc. Most communities fail, that is, cease to exist or become unhappy places which is usually the final stage before ending. Usually due to lack of funds and conflict.
Crystal Waters, 100 kms north of Brisbane, Australia is considered to be the first permaculture village, and began in the early seventies, Findhorn in Scotland, which was a wild and wooly hippy community from the sixties that morphed into a more established kind of community that has commercialized itself through the many workshops that it offers. The same could be said for the Farm in Tennessee. A hippy community from the sixties, wild and chaotic that morphed into a more commercialized version with its many workshops that it offers. Damanhur in Italy, perhaps is the most striking and dynamic community that exists which one can join by simply buying a house in the area. These are examples of the latter type that still exist after around sixty years.
The kind of community that I live in is the most difficult kind to sustain. That is because the community is so dependent on the people that live in it. We need to get along well and to share the management of the community as equally and fairly as possible. Everyone must have a 100% commitment to the community. And more than that, everyone must be a noble soul. When I say noble, I mean honest, caring, reliable, humble, and reasonable/open minded, and if one person is lacking in these qualities it can destroy the community . This is the difficult part because people come with unresolved trauma, which is largely hidden, they have also been brainwashed or propagandized their entire lives and may have false beliefs, and finally, because people change.
The great revelation that I have come to after almost 10 years in our eco community is that the only way we can succeed is to have entirely noble people. The foundation of our community is love and connection. We are forever in the process of deepening these two aspects. Everything one does for the community or for individuals in the community is an act of love. Love is about caring. One gives love without expecting anything other than the joy of enhancing the lives of others. Ego driven giving expects something in return.
What is particularly interesting about this revelation is that I believe the same thing holds for the greater society. That until people can embrace unconditional love for everyone and respect for the sacredness of all life, humanity will never be able to mend its ways and will forever be a living hell for those of whom atrocities and injustices are perpetuated.
If one is to study history closely and try to understand why humanity has not been able to constantly improve and evolve into a paradise for everyone by now, one might discover that humanity has almost always been dominated by those who put their self interests before the interests of the whole. It has been dominated by people who are willing and capable of killing others to accomplish their goals, the kings and warlords all the way to the warlords of today who dominate surreptitiously through stealth and violence, the people with the most money and access to arms, military, spies, and most of the assets of the world. One might characterize them as nazi, eugenicists, narcissists. The most arrogant people on the planet.
One large aspect of capitalism that is most often overlooked is that freedom is directly related to wealth. The more wealth, the more options one has, and visa versa. This is inherently unfair, because I believe that freedom should be equal for everyone. Unfortunately, I don't believe that we can replace capitalism until humanity shares the idea of unconditional love for everyone; that people must recognize that we are not only individuated, but that we are also connected as a species and more deeply as a part of the particular kind of consciousness that we all have and share as humans. The kind of consciousness that makes living ethically, that is, with respect for the lives of others, a possibility. No other animal can or needs to live ethically. All the other animals live by "might makes right", and so do we, up until now. After all, we are animals. But we are gifted with our special kind of consciousness that gives us infinitely more options than all the other animals. But it is a double edged sword, our consciousness, that is, it also gives us the possibility of coming to infinitely wrong conclusions and decisions that can harm rather than serve us.
To make good decisions, one must be adequately informed and if we are constantly fed misinformation, one can expect poor decisions. These poor decisions have led us to the monumental and grave crises that we face today.
To be organized is extremely important in my opinion, if one is to live happily and with the most ease. Governance is about organizing and managing ourselves as a group. If our governments are constantly and forever subverted by those who would prefer to gain at the expense of everyone else we will continue to experience the horrors and unacceptables that have been and continue to be forced upon us. This is what must be reconciled, if we are to continue to exist. Life is a monumental gift that is beyond anyone's ability to fully appreciate, that all should enjoy, it should never be something that must be endured.
To end the cycles of violence and injustices we must close the vectors of corruption. Revolutions, insurrections, elections, protests and strikes have not succeeded in improving our lot. That may be because when vertically managed, it is so simple to intimidate the one at the top to conform to the demands of those surreptitious forces who control behind the scenes. Those aforementioned types who will eliminate anyone who threatens their control. The solution that has been overlooked for centuries is how many, but not all indigenous tribes are organized. That is horizontally, with direct participation by the citizens. In this way people can decide on how best they may organize for the most freedom, abundance, and happiness. With the possibility to constantly improve and refine. Each group is autonomous, yet able to collaborate and cooperate as much as they like with other groups (cities).
With all the millions of new innovations, the possibility of reinventing the dystopic cities of today to utopic (always improving) cities of the future exists. My colleague is working on an encyclopedia of innovations that will make their accessibility much more easy. And with the technology that now exists, the possibility to collaborate on large scales also exists.
If I was one of the richest people on the planet, I would give up my exalted position in an instant, if I could live in a peaceful, just, and abundant world for all, where the general condition is happiness, joy, and love. Yet, it seems that those with the most money don't share this attitude, that instead, they would rather enjoy controlling all of humanity, It is possible that once you are in their position and can afford to buy any and everything, one finds one's existence still lacking and one could be depressed if not absolutely fulfilled. This is perhaps the reason that they would choose to play the "game" of world domination, as the greatest distraction imaginable, which gives them the sense of thrill, adventure, and purpose that they hadn't been able to achieve or maintain previously. This is my only explanation as to why they would choose to live in this manner at the expense of the happiness of the rest of humanity.
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