Cohousing-L Mailing List: Religion, Control, Ethnocentricity, Diversity

[E L Cobb (a_momcat]

>>Trying to diversify cohousing communities has merit, but the effort fights 
the natural tendency of like-minded people to cluster and exclude people who 
do not fit in.  Thus the effort to stop the fighting between Protestants and 
Catholics in Northern Ireland, between the Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, 
between the Serbians and the Croatians, between the Hindus and Muslims, 
between the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East, between the Christians 
and Jews in Eastern Europe, all illustrate the natural tendency of people to 
cluster and regard themselves as special.  One of the reasons I believe that 
Jews have been persecuted is because of their reluctance to proselytize 
Gentiles and to exclude anybody who does not fit their a priori criteria of 
bona fide Jews.  Christians have welcomed all kinds of people into the fold 
and have thrived because of this.  However, anybody welcomed in must abide 
by the standards of the religion to remain members in good standing.<<

Norm, this is where you lost me.  Your examples aren't so much about 
ethnocentric divisions as they are religious conflicts.  And when you get right 
down to the bottom of it, fighting in the name of religion, and religions in 
general aren't about ethnic differences, they're about control.  Whose 
institutions, morality, and laws are going to be boss.  And since religion is 
the flip side of the state, the outcome is going to determine whose guys are 
going to be on top.

And I'm not EVEN going to comment about the Christians who have welcomed all 
kinds of people into the fold, except to ask whether this was before or after 
they slaughtered the Jews as a warm-up to going after the Muslems in the blood 
baths so reverently referred to as the crusades.

But back to diversity.  Maybe we are hardwired to fear and distrust those who 
are different than we.  Maybe.  I'm no scientist, but I'd like to think that 
while it was once natural to fear another clan who might try to steal our fire, 
we've come a long way through education, proximity, communication, and 
experience; so that the reasons we don't readily embrace differences are only 
because of habit, lack of exposure, ignorance, and the efforts of religious and 
state institutions to draw lines in the sand.  When we are children, there is a 
lot that frightens us -- strange animals, things that go bump in the night, 
maybe people who look different.  But we tend to outgrow that if circumstances 
aren't against us.

Liza
intrigued by but not part of a co-housing community