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

[Jeanne Goodman (GoodmanJ]

I don't think the question has anything to do with who is *let* into a
community. It has to do with who would *want* to live in a community.

I try to think of the past that I never knew...at the dawn of suburbs. Which
I know only from old television shows. In those representations, it's often
the very conservative families who are most tied into their neighborhoods.
It's a bad science, I know, but bear with me.

I think the ideology has less to do with liberalism vs. conservativism than
one's historical perspective.

Do you imagine community with a psychological foot planted in the sixties?
Does that make you long to put on your tie-dye shirt or does it make you
shudder?

Or do you imagine community with a psychological foot planted in "Father
Knows Best?"

THIS ... more than your political views is IMO what determines whether you
seek out or shun community.

I think that conservatives often look at community with disdain because they
are imagining something sixties-ish (thus Diane's ashram comment)

Jeanne

----- Original Message -----
From: Greg Dunn
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 03:57
Subject: RE: [C-L]_Is living cooperatively an ideology of itself?

I guess I still don't buy that there is a 1-to-1 correlation between the
desire to share community and left-of-center politics; and therefore I don't
think politics should be the determinant of whether you let
someone into your cohousing community or not. I think the determinant should
be whether a candidate can show that they will contribute in a positive way
to the community, and be basically kind and cooperative with their
neighbors, and be willing and able to participate in the community life. I
still say that if you can find someone who can be like that even though they
have very different beliefs and even values than you, you're lucky, because
they'll help keep you honest.

Of course, everyone is free (within the bounds of the law) to form whatever
sort of community they want, so I'm just talking about the community I'd
most like to see and be part of.

The metaphor that occurs to me (for the person evaluating a prospective
community member) is that of an NBA talent scout. He is undoubtedly aware
that a disproportionately high percentage of big-time NBA stars are black.
He may well let that knowledge influence how and where he allocates his
recruiting time.  But in the end, his job is to evaluate people on how they
play basketball, not the color of their skin (*or* their political
affiliations).  There are a few white, Latino, and Asian guys (probably even
some under 7'5" tall) who can play with the best. They may bring something
very special to the team, precisely because they *are* different.

Greg Dunn


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