Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What is diversity really? [Was What is co-housing really?]

[Gerald Manata (gmanata2003]

    " Diversity" has become a sacred word among liberals and" tolerating 
diversity" is an important ethic among them. I think that middle class 
liberals, who dominate cohousing, feel compelled to put "welcome diversity" in 
their list of values proclaimed to the public.
     Certainly diversity has some advantages. A cross section of skills is 
obviously useful among a group of friends, a community and a nation. A 
diversity of opinions, allowed to be freely expressed among all concerned, is 
the surest way to arrive at the "truth" or the best way of doing anything. The 
arguments for this, summed up neatly 150 years ago by John Stuart Mill in "On 
Liberty"and other liberal philosophers before him, ring as true today as they 
did then.
     Some in cohousing are carrying this further, expressing a desire to 
actually "go out of their way" to "recruit" diversity. I wonder how serious 
this desire is. The tendency of people is to seek out other people like 
themselves for friendship and community. This is especially important for any 
self governing community.
     The arguments for this also go back a long ways. It was a point raised by 
Montesquieu, Rousseau, and by the Anti-Federalists in our Constituional 
Convention. To summarize and paraphrase, a self governing body must be small in 
territory and homogeneous in interests, opinion, habit and mores. Back then, 
they were referring to a republic. With cohousing, where we practice the most 
extreme form of self government--consensus democracy--this would seem to be 
even more true.If the laws of Political Science hold true, I contend that, all 
other things being equal, the smoothest running (if this is a desired trait) 
cohousing communities are probably the ones with the least diversity. I contend 
that, if a cohousing complex moved over time to becoming a true community or 
even village, as opposed to just a condominium with friendlier neighbors, it 
would develop its own customs and mores, a "that is just the way things are 
done here" attitude, which, like more intentional
 communities, will discourage diversity. This may be more true for more 
self-sufficient country eco-village type places (the old urban liberalism vs. 
country conservatism). Most cohousing complexes, however, are connected to the 
liberal society around them--plugged into its media, relied on for most 
employment, goods and services. This should keep new ideas coming in and 
provide some counter to conservative tendencies.
     Cohousing is a new experiment. It will be interesting to see how some of 
these competing tendencies play out over the decades. I think it is a social 
scientist's dream to observe.

Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> wrote: 

On Aug 29, 2008, at 8:05 PM, Richard L Kohlhaas wrote:

> Q.  What's an example of diversity at the Unitarian church?
> A.  Three different colors of Subarus in the parking lot.

One of the makers people believe indicates diversity is skin color.  
Another is income level (which can be achieved with little if any  
social diversity).

But there are many other kinds of diversity -- the ones that are not  
visible.

What about political diversity? Has anyone gone out and recruited a  
conservative Republican recently? An Army Colonel? In terms of  
personal growth and learning tolerance this would be much more of a  
challenge than dealing with wide income differences.

What is the point of diversity?

What is it? What are it's benefits?

I'm not being critical of anything said, only raising the question. Do  
we know what the aims of "diversity" are? How we know if we have it or  
not? And if we did have it, what would the benefits be?

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Sociocracy, a Deeper Democracy
http://www.sociocracy.info



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