Cohousing-L Mailing List: left wing rhetoric complaint/reply

['Judith Wisdom (wisdom]

Tony Rocco wrote about being fearful that cohousing as a solution to 
social anomie will alienate him in another way, by forcing him to living 
amongst heavy duty idealogues of the left.

I am reasonably sure, though less qualified than others on the list, that 
the preponderance or at least many coho groups are not deeply into 
Marxist ideology talk.

However, as you look into the groups that you are interested in that is 
something you will be able to discern pretty easily.

What has happened on this list is, in my perception, that those of us who 
are concerned that some people who want to live in cohousing but can't 
afford it and are thus excluded, though they many of them, wouldn't mind 
a neigbhor with a Mercedes Benz or Armani clothes, have spoken of this 
very serious issue of being excluded using Marxist concepts and ideology.

I personally don't think it's necessary even though Marxist and socialist 
ideas can lend themselves to understanding this problem.

So, Tony, I wouldn't be worried that you're gonna find that cohousing = 
Marxist/socialist ideology.(1)  But I do urge you, using your own conscience 
and ideology, to find a way to be concerned about some people who cannot 
pay for coho as it now costs.  That's the issue that I and some others 
think is important.

Judith Wisdom

(1) Although clearly there will be *some* cohos where some members might 
be interested in Marxist analysis, most of the discussion on the list and 
most of my connections with coho people is that this isn't the case.  I 
for one don't want to live in a community mired in any particular 
ideology except one of human decency and support and sharing and care 
about others and the environment.  And by the way, Marxist concepts, when 
you are engaged in serious political economic analysis, have their place, 
their value, and their limits.  As a sociologist I won't through out Marx 
any more than I'll throw out Max Weber or Durkheim, but I don't want to 
live where analysis of matters sociological or political economic are the 
daily currency.