Cohousing-L Mailing List: Is living cooperatively an ideology of itself?

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

I have a random email conversation with a person who describes himself as an
arch conservative. He posts a web log on a lot of topics and we met when he
posted a letter to the editor I wrote, then critiqued it from his political
standpoint. Anyway, in describing cohousing he calls it a liberal ideology
to want to live together cooperatively. Given the kind of people I
continually meet from cooperative living, It got me thinking that he is
right.

To live together cooperatively requires lots of time talking with, learning
about, and learning how to trust the people you live with. It often means
accepting peoples differences, learning how to compromise and adjust your
personal desires to meld with the desires of others. This are actions that
liberals do well.

Are these ideological actions? If an ideology is a system of beliefs, then
isn't cooperative living full of social beliefs which initiate actions?

And if so, how could cohousing ever be non-ideological?

In a SWAG (silly wild ass guess) I would say 85% of the people I have met
involved in  cooperative living, with whom I have some idea of their
politics, are political liberals.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Sharon Villines
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 7:48 AM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Re: Cohousing Mainstream




On Monday, February 3, 2003, at 06:07  PM, Mac & Sandy Thomson wrote:

> I don't know whether cohousing will ever become mainstream (whatever
> that
> is), but I'd sure like to see it become MUCH more available.  [snip]
> I like that cohousing has no ideology other than an intension to live
> in
> greater harmony with our neighbors.  IMHO, discouraging non-liberals
> who
> seek community from joining cohousing unnecessarily stifles the growth
> of
> cohousing and the richness of diversity found therein.

The ideas and organizing methods will become more mainstream without
being "labeled" cohousing. Neighbors are already asking us "how do you
do that." We have several very organized neighborhood associations who
are interested in concepts of conflict resolution and shared resources.
These are the skills that will feed community development.

The image of a group of people building new homes centered around a
commonhouse is not likely to
"become the norm" but that isn't what brings most of us to cohousing.
That format only enables it in our current housing situation. Infill or
building communities in existing housing would be just as satisfying as
a living situation. For now, the new communities are just easier since
it allows people who are already thinking along similar lines to find
each other without displacing or rearranging whole neighborhoods of
people.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.332 / Virus Database: 186 - Release Date: 3/6/02

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.332 / Virus Database: 186 - Release Date: 3/6/02

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L