Re: red/blue schism
From: Jim Snyder-Grant (jim.snyder.grantgmail.com)
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 07:47:04 -0800 (PST)
I think one place these sorts of political/temperamental difference
run through coho groups is in what we might call the
libertarian/communist split (to exaggerate a bit, for effect).

The communists like to propose agreements for reinforcing maximum
community involvement: mandatory work agreements, meetings at which
everyone is expected to attend, architectural designs that force folks
to be at particular places at particular times (around mailbox
placement & parking, for example).

The libertarians reflexively reject mandatory social arrangements.
They look for lots of choices, each person fitting in as they may,
even at the price of some folks drifting away. Cars near houses don't
worry them very much at all.

Again, I'm exaggerating for effect. Really there is a continuum. But
even in seemingly homogeneous coho groups, these differences emerge,
and the temperaments of the founding members can elevate one end of
this spectrum or the other to community norms.

At New View (Acton MA), we were started largely by libertarians, and
we've ended up with the following:
-Some mailboxes at the parking lots, some in the CH.
-Almost 1/2 the houses have drive-up parking.
-No mandatory work agreement or expectations.

Will this mean we will drift apart in to isolated suburban slumber?
Not so far, but give us another 10-20 years and I'll have more data.

As some of the earlier postings showed, one way to map our basic
political temperments is on a 2-dimensional axis, with left/right on
one axis, and libertarian/socialist on another axis. I'd agree that
overwhelmingly what I've seen is a a left-ish composition in coho
groups. But along the other axis, there is plenty of variation.

-Jim

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