Cohousing-L Mailing List: Political context of cohousing

[Craig D. Willis (willic3]

Kim Van Dyke asked the following question:

>Is it by design that single-
>parent families are priced out of just about every housing market?

My response is that a predatory economic system leaves you with the
"choice" of whether you want to be predator or prey... not much else.
It's no accident that our economic system is the way that it is (as
developed and maintained by the privileged and powerful) but certain
consequences of that, such as housing being out of reach of single
parent households seem, to me, to be just "accidental" consequences of
the larger picture of increasing societal polarization into "rich" and
"poor" (not everyone can be so "fortunate" as to be a predator).  In a
game played according to the "vile maxim", with each grabbing as much
as they can, the "spoils" of the system will invariably turn out to be
in short supply.  This is by design, but categories of victims in such
a system (e.g. single parents) can take "comfort" in the fact that
it's probably nothing personal.

This train of thought leads into something that I want to comment on
to fellow readers of this cohousing group.  Doesn't cohousing have an
overwhelmingly political element to it?  I'm not saying that cohousers
will necessarily be very aware of this fact consciously.  But aren't
you guys bucking the system?  Of course, at this stage in its
development, cohousing is still small peanuts.  But one thing that I
am very aware of is that cohousing has the potential to be a threat to
powerful vested interests in our society.  I do *not* expect the
status quo elements of our society... those who profit from the
powerlessness and alienation that has been engineered for the masses
in terms of their living (e.g. housing) choices... to be supportive of
our efforts to find alternatives to the straightjacket we've been ever
more solidly confined in for the entirety of this century.

So, given this, I ask myself: where is the political element (at least
as an awareness issue) in our discussion of cohousing?  I don't see it
being talked about openly (yes, there was a thread about activism
being "synergized" by the community).  I feel it constantly there,
though, lurking subliminally in the background, in a lot of the
dialogue that I read, but not quite piercing the membrane of
consciousness.  I know I'm a lot more politically-oriented than most
people (not necessarily cohousers).  Don't misunderstand me, I don't
give a damn about the Democrats, Republicans, Ross Perot, et al in any
conventional sense.  But given that the discussion is about cohousing
(and not, say, about meditation where it might not be so relevant) the
political context within which we are all either implicitly or
explicitly operating seems very important to me.  Important because
we're talking about (the idea of) creating a community of people.
Surely that has political *overtones* (at the very least).  And in
fact, the issue of what values a cohousing community is going to
stipulate as shared values that the community wishes to espouse and
perhaps even commit itself to always seems to come up... and then get
discarded as an impractical barrier to the always difficult process of
getting people to agree on *anything*.  And there are always more
immediate concerns: what kind of land-site, buildings, financial
arrangements, etc.  But in the end, when the community becomes a
reality, what do the participants really share (other than a very nice
arrangement where their kids can play together and perhaps some
offloading of the burden of making meals on a daily basis)?  That is
the part that really troubles me, looking at this whole process in a
political context, as I do.  I'd like my neighbors to share my values
(don't *you* want that?).  It seems more likely that cohousers (as
opposed to Joe Average off the street) will.  But I'd like to do still
better than that.  I'd like to *talk* about this issue and end up in a
community of people who *do* share my values: not by accident, but by
design.

It seems to me that cohousing is seen as such an improbable venture
that *any* success is eagerly welcomed.  That's probably a fairly
accurate appraisal.  I just want to put myself on record as stating
1) that I desire *more* than just to live in a *somewhat* closer-knit
community than is the norm for our (extremely isolating) society.  I
desire a true community of like-minded people.  And for me that is
basically a *political proposition* revolving around the issue of
trying to become more aware of (and do something about) the systematic
ways in which our political and social systems foster and perpetuate
social injustice, and 2) I expect organized opposition to this
endeavor, even when pursued in a fairly politically agnostic way, if
it should threaten to become a viable alternative for significant
numbers of people.

P.S.  Don't flame me if this doesn't seem immediately constructive to
you or because you perceive that I'm a dreamer.  I already know that.
I am getting a lot out of listening to what other people have to say
in this group and this is my own (idiosyncratic) contribution.


Craig Willis
willic3 [at] rpi.edu
518-477-4406