Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: "Political" composition of cohousing groups

[Hune Margulies (hm64]

I belive that we you describe is the "intentionality" that serves as 
foundation for communitarian experiences. The Sociologist Tonnies used to 
differentiate between the "social" and the "communal" the communal being 
a more intimate and intentional kind of collaborative living arrangement.

On Mon, 5 Sep 1994, Craig D. Willis wrote:

> >... find and agree on a housing site and buy or build houses together,
> >people must have similar mind-sets.
> >
> >On the other hand, I think it gets a bit dangerous to be living and hanging
> >out only with those of similar belief.
> 
> Even before I saw Ray's response I felt a need to clarify what I said.
> The comments above make it obvious why.  The attributes I have in mind
> when I say that I want to live in a community of like-minded people
> are: having a strong interest in truth, justice and personal growth
> (forgive the cliche, but at least I didn't say "the American way"),
> and be willing to talk about and stay open to new ideas as they try to
> make sense of the world around them.  It is *that* desire (to *really*
> want to *try* to do this) that I see as an essential attribute of
> companions that I would really be *thrilled* about trying to create a
> community with.
> 
> I definitely agree that cohousers are a *lot* more likely to have
> these qualities, but I also think that there could be (and are) a wide
> variety of reasons for why people get interested in cohousing.  So I
> don't see it necessarily as a given.  In fact, my experience is that
> almost *all* people have learned to become quite reticent (at the very
> *least*) about seriously delving into the nature of the reality around
> them, perhaps because there always seem to be so many more pressing
> problems to be dealt with.
> 
> As I indicated in my previous post, I really don't care much about
> whether people are Republicans or Democrats or whatnot (or whether
> they even vote or not---dedicated voters are probably more naive than
> idealistic).  Cynicism and disillusionment are the normal response to
> be expected given the political climate we live in, and I am truly
> admiring of anyone who is able to rise above that.
> 
> I found Kevin Wolf's analysis of the political composition of N
> Street, and the "rent before buying" nature of their community very
> interesting.  I wonder if other people in other groups would be
> willing to briefly describe the nature of their "membership" in this
> vein?  It helps me to get a much better feeling for what the community
> is like (to the extent that a small amount of information can) and
> associates an individual character with a site (in this case, N
> street) that otherwise would remain pretty much anonymous in my mind,
> given that I can't easily associate all the individual comments that
> have come from each cohousing community member.
> 
> 
> Craig Willis
> willic3 [at] rpi.edu
> 518-477-4406
>