Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What's wrong with communes- On language

[Racheli&John (jnpalme]

** Reply to note from Sharon Villines <sharonvillines [at] prodigy.net> Fri, 11 
May 2001 13:06:07 -0400
>From Racheli

A warning: the following is explicitly "political".  Read
it at your own risk :)
   
> > It seems to me a bit odd that while we are all, to a larger or smaller
> > extent, agents for social change, there is such a pervasive feeling
> > that we should allow the media to determine what "is" and
> > what "isn't".
>   
> This is an interesting point but somewhere in the long process of conception
> to move in, someone quoted someone as saying, building cohousing is hard.
> You can't do two hard things at once. Either you are building a housing
> complex that fosters community or you are ...... You can't do both and still
> get a new cohousing community built.

You might be right, but then - it might just be a convenient assumption
to make that "you can't...".  How do you know that?
   
> I would say that you can either be building cohousing or you can change the
> English language. If you want to build cohousing now, you need to speak the
> language that others are already speaking. THEN you can decide if the
> priority of your group is to salvage the word commune.

I think the purpose might be to reclaim our right to the language,  and to
a *representation of reality* which isn't foisted on us from above.
 

> The media actually doesn't dictate although they certainly feed on our own
> sensationlistic interests -- the people who buy their papers dictate. It is
> the language of the "the consumer."

I couldn't disagree more.  I've yet to meet someone who reads one
of our local newspapers who thinks it's of a decent quality.
It's all that's available, though, if one wants to read a local
daily paper, and some people can't conceive of foregoing
it.

A few sources which elaborate on the "manufacture of consent":
A book with that title written by Noam Chomsky and Edward
Herman.  Or see the video: "Noam Chomsky and the Manufacture
of Consent".  Another great book is: "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You!,
Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry", by John Stauber 
and Sheldon Rampton, published by Common Courage Press.
It's a truly incredible book, very fascinating (while also being
scary).
It explores/exposes the fast disappearing line between "news" and
entertainment; The huge resources invested by corporations, 
governments (and other groups who have things to hide!) to
keep a great multitude of truths from coming out.  One of their many tricks is
to change language in ways which will promote *their* well-
being, as opposed to ours, by making us believe in utter
fictions.   In fact, a lot of what passes these days as "news" comes
out of the PR industry, disguised as such.
The Nation had some sobering articles about the growing concentration
of media-ownership in the hands of a few.  I'm sure it can be found
on their website.
IMO the interest of those in power is to keep us feeling powerless.
One major way of keeping us so is making us believe that getting
together to achieve a common end is bad.  (Among other things
it might get us too busy to do all the consuming we need to do 
to keep the economy floating)...  So, the demonizing of communes
isn't about competing views of history, it's about keeping us from
exploring ways to empower ourselves.

Well, off the soap box.

Hot in Tucson,
R.




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