Community Reformation Re: financial diversity (WAS Development Phase)
From: Wayne Tyson (landrestcox.net)
Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:01:31 -0700 (PDT)
CoHo:

"'Tis friction's brisk, rough rub, that provides the vital spark!" --Alexander 
Reid Martin

Cultures, tending toward concentration of power and hierarchy tend to be 
self-defining in terms of conflict, simply because the rules they have worked 
out RULE! The social impulses that drive experimentation with community 
reformation, that preserve social mores rather than cultural rules and laws, 
are, by definition, going to be in conflict with the forces of 
authoritarianism, even at microscopic scales, as it were. Conflict resolution 
is a process, not a product, and requires an investment in TIME. 

"They tell us we are wasting time, but we are wasting our lives!" --Eric Hoffer

Experiments in community reformation like co-housing have a Herculean climb 
upon their shoulders, with much of the world in opposition, so the inevitable 
conflict comes with the territory. Such experiments are not doomed as a 
category, but the transition to a more interdependent, truly integrated whole 
requires patience, perhaps above all. Humility, even, but certainly an openness 
of mind to concepts corrupted by thousands of years of cultural formation. 

I see very encouraging signs in these exchanges, and opportunities for finding 
the sweet-spot on the stress curve that is enough to avoid atrophy but not so 
much as to cause disintegration. 

The heroic is not so much a flashy single act of courage/love, but persistence 
instead of stubbornness, and the development of personal values that recognize 
virtue as its own reward. 

WT 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sharon Villines" <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
To: <eris [at] erisweaver.info>; "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2011 8:31 AM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ financial diversity (WAS Development Phase)


> 
> 
> On 23 Sep 2011, at 12:30 PM, Eris Weaver wrote:
> 
>> Greater diversity = greater opportunity for conflict!
> 
> 
> And what the idealistic cohousers that we are all, we come right up against 
> this soon after move-in, if our diversity allows us to move in at all. 
> 
> I wonder what people think diversity is? We've talked before about how many 
> different kinds of diversity there are - not just ethnic or financial, but we 
> forget that with skin color, social class, and income levels come values. God 
> forbid we would have a Republican (did anyone ever locate one?).
> 
> Liberals seem to assume that we differ in ways that bring richness to our 
> lives, and forget that those differences result in or are the result of 
> fundamentally different lifestyles and values. When you are trying to make 
> decisions together differing values = conflict. People have different aims. 
> When people have different aims, consensus is not always possible.
> 
> When it comes to yes, no, and maybe, diversity = conflict. Unfortunately, we 
> aren't so patient with working through conflict to find mutually satisfying 
> solutions. And sometimes it isn't possible when we live in such close 
> quarters and are so interdepedent.
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
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