permies: "intentional community / city repair / ecovillage"

cameron.emily.rose@gmail.com

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 Community One

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 by John Preston (gizmoguy[the number one] [@t] gmail [d0t-c0m])

 This document intends to explain my reasons for wanting to live in a commune, 

 and what that commune should look like in certain respects. If you'd like to

 pick my brains a little more afterwards, e-mail me at the above address, 

 replacing the square bracketed sections with the appropriate text. The working

 title for the commune is "Community One", and throughout the text it may be 

 referred to by such, or by "the commune", "C1", or some other appropriate term.

 Why?

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 My main motivation is the greedy motivation: it's what I want. I want to live in

 a society that isn't harmful to nature (or perhaps I should say, is less harmful

 to nature), I want to live in a society where I have the freedom to do what I

 want (within the limits of our ethics, which we will discuss later), I want to 

 live in a society where I don't have a care in the world, and where I can live

 each day as I wish, I want to live in a world free from higher government, 

 capitalism, and injustice, I want to live out my days with some close friends. 

 Moving to a commune is a great way to achieve these goals with maximum success.

 Another reason, which is much more important, is for the Book. The Book will be

 the total collection of all of the knowledge we (used throughout the rest of the

 article to refer to the future population of the commune) will have used to 

 build C1. This may not seem too critical, but when you learn a bit more about 

 what the commune will be like, you'll see why this mammoth task matters so much.

 In short, (I believe that) no other commune like this has been built, and as a 

 key part of my philosophy I see providing this knowledge in the form of the Book

 as potentially revolutionary.

 If you're someone interested in living in such a society with me, I will likely

 find your reasons for why irrelevant. That's not to say I am not interested, but

 rather that it will probably have no bearing on our shared life together; it's 

 not about any one's why, it's about our what.

 My philosophy

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 As someone interested in politics and ethics, I find myself thinking about them

 a lot. My eventual move to the commune is merely a practical extension of my 

 thought. Surely one should judge a philosopher by what he does, not what he says

 or thinks and then subsequently fails to do.

 There are a number of approaches to various problems I have pondered which have 

 led me to my conclusions, but I'll start off with what I believe to be the 

 easiest and strongest argument. I believe that legitimate action must come from 

 an agreement beforehand between all parties affected by said action, and that 

 all other forms of action are illegitimate. Two people should be able to fight 

 to the death if they've both consented to it. Obviously, it can start getting 

 more complex when you introduce other factors such as one's "state of mind", 

 (and one can argue about the effects on their friends and family when someone 

 dies, etc. It's not the best example I've ever made) but that's the core idea: 

 consent, agreement, tolerance. From this, we quickly arrive at the conclusion 

 that if one can move to live in a forest in an independent way that doesn't 

 affect the rest of society, then one should be able to do so. This is what I'm 

 doing with the commune, creating a fork of society that will exist 

 independently, and that will hopefully co-exist with the current one (by which 

 I mean the 'society at large' that you are likely in as you read this).

 What?

 -----

 And so we arrive at the one unshakeable tenant, the core philosophy of the 

 commune: complete independence. Now you can see why the Book is so important; 

 such a task has not been documented before, and if it is documented then other 

 people can read that documentation and make their own communes with ease. People

 will then have the ability to live as they want much more easily in their grasp.

 My philosophy (cont. I)

 -----------------------

 I hypothesise that dissemination of the content within the Book will help to 

 lead us to a new stage of social evolution. If new societies can be created, 

 then we will see the rapid (compared to history so far) prototyping of social 

 structures on a wide variety of scales. Want to live in a communist monarchy? No

 problem, just leave me alone. Want to see if capitalism works effectively with 

 only a handful of people? Sure thing. By enabling 'society at large' to fracture

 in this way, we not only give the individual the power to live as he wants, but 

 we also get more data about more 'radical' social structures, characteristics, 

 and policies, and we create stronger feedback between societies and their 

 inhabitants, which I foresee leading to a politics that better fits human 

 nature, and that is more flexible to change over time. Not to mention the 

 positive ecological effects of lower-tech, lower-population, distributed living 

 (assuming such new societies follow our environmental ethos to some degree).

 All of that, of course, hangs on writing the Book and getting it out there, 

 which is why I see the creation of the commune as something so important.

 What? (cont. I)

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 As of writing (2012-01-18) I am the only 'resident' of C1, and so the entire 

 vision for how it will look is mine. Naturally, I'm open to input from the rest

 of the populace, it's just that there isn't any one else yet. As I said before,

 I want to live out my days with my friends, so what I hope is that I can find 

 other people who agree with my arguments, or just want to live in a similar way,

 and we can become friends and end up living together in a way similar to the one

 I envision.

 There are some things I feel strongly about, but I am willing to give way to 

 reason in all parts of my life. The reason I often feel strongly about these 

 things is because I believe them to be well-reasoned! That said, logic is my 

 guide, and I would very much like to live with other people of a similar vein, 

 perhaps causing C1 to become a "city of philosophers".

 The first key principle is the Principle of Complete Independence, as already

 discussed. This means we must have security in food, water, shelter, everything 

 we will ever need. This also means that we must be able to replace everything we

 use in the construction of the commune. Complete Independence means not only the

 ability to be self-sufficient, but the ability to remain completely separate 

 from any community for as long as desired, and for new communities to have the 

 ability to form from ours, as is the purpose of the Book. If we can build a 

 community using only tools that we ourselves can make, then we have created a 

 complete split from our current society, not just for us but for the future 

 generations of societies that may eventually arise.

 The second principle I hold dear is the Principle of Minimal Environmental 

 Impact. Whatever we do will likely have some detrimental effect on the rest of 

 nature, and I believe that such effects should be minimised, for the sake of all

 life on the planet. This also ties in with preventing unwanted interaction 

 between separate societies, as the biosphere affects everyone, and so any damage

 to it will probably indirectly affect someone in an unwanted way, and that's 

 just from a purely anthropocentric perspective. This principle means things like

 permaculture gardening, compressed earth construction, complete composting, etc.

 The third principle is the Principle of Consensus. We all live together, and as 

 a small community I believe consensus decision making will work to provide the 

 best form of government. This doesn't have to follow any strict rules, and there

 doesn't have to be any strict adherence to my theory of consent or any other 

 ethical, political, or social paradigm. However, I think we should all listen to

 each other, and try to come to agreements on matters in the commune. As a small 

 society, we need small government, and we should respect everyone's thoughts and

 opinions.

 When?

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 Forming a new society with these goals is a difficult task, and I foresee that 

 this will take many years. As more people read this (and similar) documents, 

 some will become interested in these ideas and in C1, if they do not start 

 forming their own communities. After a network of us has been established and a

 definite population has been found, the next stage is the learning and mastery 

 of all of the skills we will needs to survive. Years of research will have to be

 done, and many experiments will have to be conducted. We will have to be able to

 build houses, to make pots, to grow crops. Over time, as learning continues, our

 communication will result in the formation of friendships, and by the time we 

 will have mastered the necessary disciplines for the formation of the commune, 

 we will know each other well, and we will know who we do want to live with. As 

 such, the educational stage can take place as an open affair not specific to C1,

 but as a global collaboration by interested individuals. This knowledge will 

 form the basis for a preliminary copy of the Book. Soon after we feel we are 

 ready, we will move out to form C1, where we can live in the reality of our own

 construction. Here, we will finish the Book, and this will be delivered into 

 the larger society we will have left for dissemination.

 --

 Thank you for your time.

 John Preston

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