Cohousing-L Mailing List: Philosophy, class and other sundry topics

[kchiancone (kchiancone]

          Hello:
          I am new to this list and subscribed to engage in 
          intelligent discussions on cooperative housing, intentional 
          families, etc, etc. What I am surprised(?) at in my limited 
          exposure to this group is the rather discouraging flaming 
          that seems to go on between the "Yuppies" and the 
          "Leftists".  Please, the idea of co-housing is to EXPAND the 
          definitions of community not limit them. 
          
          It takes a certain amount of different types of people to 
          build a community. The act of labeling, while very British 
          and American, is not very constructive to this dialogue. Can 
          we please have a civilized and polite (yes, I know that the 
          term polite is not in vogue nowadays) discussion between all 
          parties. 
          
          Tony can refrain from his explaining about his "obsessive" 
          personal identification and worth with material ownership 
          (why Americans pay that much money for a german taxi cab is 
          beyond me - chalk it up to thirty years of good german 
          advertising and american gullibility) and Scott can refrain 
          from his leftist screaming fits would make a much better 
          atmosphere in which to communicate.  
          
          Maybe if we can all understand and accept the political 
          differences between us versus harping on them would further 
          the discourse important to this group.  I am an American who 
          grew up overseas and have been back in this country for 10 
          years. I still don't understand nor do I accept the rancor 
          and nastiness that have gripped both the Left and Right in 
          this country. Stop whining and get on with it. Stop sweating 
          the small sh-t and start COOPERATING. The idea is to find 
          intelligent and constructive ways to BUILD community 
          composed of different types of people.  
          
          The rich will have to find ways to support (why has this 
          word become such a bad word in this country) the lesser or 
          poor and the poor will learn to find ways that make their 
          labors productive and equitably shareable in the community, 
          so that the rich can see the fruits of their labor in 
          returns they can relat to. Both sides will have to LEARN to 
          give up certain dogmas and selfish and self-absorbed 
          concerns in order to get along. Deal with it.
          
          Thank you, 
          Ken Chiancone