Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: "The Coho Way"

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jan 23, 2016, at 3:20 PM, Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu> wrote:
> 
>  "isn't the Coho Way" is just a patronizing way of saying,
> "Well, that isn't how we typically handle that.”

Not always. When were just forming, 15 years ago, people had a lot confusion 
about how to do cohousing. Particularly the people who had never made decisions 
by consensus. They wanted to do it right and were inordinately careful to be 
inclusive and not disagree. Years later, I learned of design decisions made 
that many people were unhappy with but were afraid to speak up.

We also had a person who worked for decades with the Red Cross whose standard 
was the "greatest good for the greatest number” and didn’t understand 
consensus. And an Egyptian who thinks majority vote saved western civilization 
and we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. From his perspective, 
living with near dictators, it did. 

There were many tense explanations about why consensus was better and why 
cohousing uses it.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org