Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Diversity, what diversity?

[Loren Davidson (loren]

At 11:13 PM 7/2/96 -0500, Tony G. Rocco wrote:
>The different strokes for different folks argument about cohousing is all 
>well and good, but I think it highly ironic that people look to cohousing 
>to isolate themselves from the people they don't like, and to surround 
>themselves with people just like themselves.
>
> I repeat: breaking down barriers by creating community 
>among ALL kinds of people is the greatest single potential benefit of 
>cohousing, in my view.
>
>(...)That's why I "go ballistic" when I hear all 
>the exclusionary rhetoric that seems to get bandied about by cohousers 
>and intentional communitarians. I absolutely can't stand it.

In other words, are you saying that you value diversity of opinions, say,
unless those opinions don't value diversity?  There's a consistency bug in
there somewhere.  You say that "us versus them" is wrong, yet you have
created a "them" in anyone who doesn't share your views on diversity.  From
where I sit, the only difference in these arguments seems to be the point of
view, not the paradigm.

Don't get me wrong...I agree with your belief that community *is* necessary,
that learning to cross barriers between people, cultures, what have you and
eventually dismantle them (without removing the differences that make life
interesting, of course) is perhaps the most important way in which we can
preserve our species and culture.  But let's be careful that we don't
transform ourselves into that which we dislike.

Yours in community,

Loren
Loren Davidson
loren [at] wombat.net
http://www.batnet.com/beauty/
The First Amendment went too far.  It should have said, "Congress shall 
make no law".