Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The "ideology" thing

Maybe on some abstract level cohousing communities have no ideology,  

but since everything we do (or choose not to do) in life,

as individuals or as a community, expresses some ideology, I think it  

would be a great step forward if the idea that communities

have no ideology gets replaces by an honest effort to own up-front to  

what are the values/ideology a given community does possess.

In our community, on many occasions when someone wished to do  

something to promote an environmental agenda, someone

would object on the grounds that "we have no ideology"...  To put it  

another way, the reigning ideology for those who object

to an ideology is the capitalist/status quo world we live in and  

with.  Yet, most of us (in my community, and I suspect in many) does

want to promote an environmental agenda, as well as some other  

progressive agendas.  Defining which issues we support, and *to what  

extent*

we commit ourselves as a community to support them might be a better  

way to go than adhering to the current mantra.

Racheli.

On Jun 6, 2011, at 10:42 AM, <kkudia [at] peoplepc.com>  

<kkudia [at] peoplepc.com> wrote:

Katie: Well said. I tend to concur: the  primary commitment of CoHo  

as an

organization is the shared commitment of building neighborhoods.  

Individuals

are free to pursue a variety of political/religious persuasions and  

social

issues (women rights, animal

rights, poverty/racial issues, poverty in developing countries,  

sustainable

agriculture etc) and I imagine this organization like

others are composed of such a mixture. Perhaps the strength of CoHo  

is its

clear focus.

Karen
Anthony Fl

I?ve been troubled by this whole union situation for several reasons:

1.     By definition, cohousing is not supposed to have a shared  

ideology.

Cohousers claim to want a diverse range of political and social
viewpoints, but

of course the vast majority of cohousers are lefty liberals and  

anyone who

doesn?t share that perspective doesn?t really fit in. I can  

understand and

respect why individual members would not want to attend the  

conference and

cross

a picket line, but why is support for organized labor even an issue  

for

the
association? It?s not part of any mission statement or platform. >

It?s regrettable that this union issue seems to be putting a damper  

on the

conference and possibly causing people to not attend.  I commend  

the board

for
trying in good faith to work with the union, but the main goal ? the
reason

we?re all here ? is to support and advance the cause of cohousing,  

and I

think
the board made the right decision to carry on with the conference.

Katie Henry

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Re: The "ideology" thing	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: Racheli Gai (rachelisonoracohousing.com)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 11:15:30 -0700 (PDT)