Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing, Communes, Comm...

[Empathy (Empathy]

re: can a cohousing group survive the death of its original leaders:
i suggest that the analogy is identical to that of a charasmatic groupand
there is a lot written to explore that type of group...
1: a charasmatic leader forms a group ,usually one with a "new" idea
    or way of doing things...in the leader's mind it is the fact that what
    they are doing is "new"  that is what is important.
2:the group grows and newcomers embrace the new plan for a     multitude of
reasons, and...(this is the important part)>> the     original leaders ways
become traditionalized...ie they are now     important to do because they are
what the leader did and not     because they are new and on the cutting edge.
3: the original charasmatic leader dies and the group meets a crisis:
    there is rarely a significant replacement, and what almost always
    happens is that the orriginal ways of the charasmatic leader that
    became  traditions are called upon to form a focus of the group
    around which it may continue.  
4: unfortunately in the process, the group is now following the
    "traditions" of the original leader which that leader NEVER     intended
to be traditions or to be followed for very long. the original     leaders
wanted these practices to be a start of an ever changing,
    updating process that would keep up with the times, but now the     group
will stagnate in them.
5: if the group survived this far needless to say yes it has continued,
    but probably in a form that the founders would revile.

777. by the way...since signing on to the list one day ago, i have recieved
an awfull lot of hate mail apparently confusing me with someone called
ecstasy from america on line......you can stop the hate mail....we are not
the same people.
888. i have actually lived in a cohousing group in denmark when i was a
pre-teen  and my perspective on it seems to be quite different than the
american view of it.  here in america there is a lot of social opposition to
the idea because of the different cultures.  americans are still a young
people and are only this century leaving the patterns of their ancestors the
settlers who viewed the land as a commodity and individualism a badge that
had to be displayed prominently every single day.  
    i believe (only my oppinion) that a lot of the controversy surrounding
the formation, continuation and success of a cohouse stems from the fact that
the people (in america) view it as an oddity rather than a natural state of
things...in other words it isnt the structure of the cohouse that brings
speculation, but it is the speculation that makes the cohouse seem odd.
 leave it be and it WILL be.....examine it to death and it will die.
sorry to pontificate but now that school is  out i feel  i need to write an
essay.

background:
i am an 18 year old female who will be starting sophmore year at penn state
in the fall.....thanks.