Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Image fear/stereotypes

[Racheli&John (jnpalme]

** Reply to note from Sharon Villines <sharonvillines [at] prodigy.net> Fri, 09 
Mar 2001 23:27:41 -0500
 From Racheli

 
> My point (once again) is not problems with community but with the allusions
> to "communes" and buzz words that recall that. People who would be very
> interested in living in cohousing can be turned away before they get in the
> door when the initial presentation evokes the spirit of "communes".
>   
> However unintentional or well meant, it still turns away good people. You
> can shout slogans from the housetops but if they don't ring the right bells,
> they won't be helpful.

I wonder how much of the stuff floating around concerning 'communes"
(not communities) is stereotypical, too.  And how much of these 
stereotypes are held by people who want to sell cohousing...
My own impression is that the so called communes were probably very
varied in their character, and there is no reason to assume they
were all the same, or that all (if any) were anything like the 
crude description we keep hearing.  I suspect that the "spirit of "communes"
is in the eye of the beholder.  And if we come across as defensive about
any possible similarity between cohousing and those dreaded entities,
what impression do we convey?
One only needs to look through the intentional communities directory
to see that many communities which started twenty or thirty or forty 
years ago (or even further back) weren't "communes", and were a 
serious effort to create important and meaningful alternatives to 
mainstream culture.  This is something which we should feel good 
about (and have a sense of connection to).   Not something that we 
should try to distance ourselves from.

One more thought: I wonder whether people who stick rigidly to 
stereotypes are likely to become good cohousers.  After all, living
with other people of different beliefs etc. takes a measure of
tolerance which seems to me to rest on a willingness to question
things.

R.







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