Cohousing-L Mailing List: Diversity

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

>From Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA.

In cohousing groups we often state that we aim for, and value 
"diversity." Political thinker Tom Atlee (cii [at] igc.org) just sent out some 
thought-provoking ideas on the matter.  Excerpts follow.
--------------------------------------------
Some Notes on Human Diversity

People usually think of human diversity in terms of "hot button" group 
differences, most of which are rooted in some form of oppression. 
..These... differences include:

race, nationality, culture/ethnicity/subculture, gender, class (or 
wealth/poverty) , age (especially extreme youth or age), (dis)ability, 
sexual preference, religion,political party

Unfortunately, the dominance of these hot differences overshadows hundreds
of other differences... [which] include:

personality
preferences
interests
   - what people are interested in
   - the different stakes they have in what's happening
needs
abilities, skills, capacities
perspectives, ways of seeing the world, paradigms
ideas
feelings, emotions, mood
opinions, positions
attitudes
beliefs
assumptions about what's real
ego involvements
values - assumptions about what's good or important
dreams, visions, desires, wishes
connections
resources
habits
lifestyles
cognitive styles, ways of sensing and knowing the world
communication styles
stories, histories, myths (both personal and collective/group)
experience - capacities developed through life
stages of development
responses - how they respond to what's going on or what's being talked 
about
tolerance levels
physical appearances
roles - in society, in the group, in some narrative
families - what was their family of origin like
education - both formal and informal, past and ongoing
information - info they have, and their relationship to information as 
such
health
status - in society, in the immediate group or relationship
and much, much more.

To the extent that people's differences ARE NOT recognized and truly
heard/seen by a group (in their own terms, including the needs and 
emotions
that underly them, so that they know they are truly heard or seen), those
differences will manifest as problems, sources of conflict, obstacles in
the path, reasons to not participate. ...

The positive flip side of this principle would be this:  To the extent 
that
people's differences ARE recognized and truly heard or seen, they become
contributions to the co-evolution of new insights, solutions, activities,
experiences, possibiltiies and relationships that enrich a group or
community and move it ahead to a fuller realization of the best that it
could be.  This is a big part of what I call co-intelligence....

So I see our challenge not so much as a matter of ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF
DIVERSITY, as such, but rather as a matter of ENHANCING OUR CAPACITY TO
DEAL CREATIVELY WITH DIVERSITY, helping ourselves collectively tap into 
the
incredible richness that awaits us there. ...
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Tom Atlee  *  The Co-Intelligence Institute  *  Eugene, OR
http://www.co-intelligence.org
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_Index.html