Communes: Why Don't they Work?

I try to explain why communes don't work based on my experience living on them.

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[bwc113]

Hey, really enjoyed that, it brought my instinct against full egalitarian communities into the light. I'm thinking of heading down to Earthaven ecovillage down in W. NC. They are an independent-income community with a diverse range of micro-communities and an emerging village economy. Lots of experienced teachers of sustainable skills from what I can see. Any knowledge/opinion of them?

[madscirat]

@bwc113 I remember really enjoying the Earth Haven people who came to visit. I never visited EH but I've lived in West NC and it is absolutely gorgeous.

The one thing I can't stress enough is don't expect to find a non hierarchical society. Communes have a strong tendency toward cliquishness. Expect something a lot closer to Middle School than Utopia. Also avoid potheads and boozers, they are parasites in hippie communities. Some even make their living drifting from one to the other.

[bwc113]

@madscirat Thanks a bunch. I read the beginning of Ken Wilbers' "Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality" and gained a better understanding of how hierarchies are inevitable. Everything is both a part of larger wholes, and a whole with parts; and the connections between are always moving/shifting. The deeper you go the deeper it gets sorta thing. Maybe the commune thing is a subconscious overreaction to crappy hierarchies, ones that are setup with greatly restrictive worldviews.

[madscirat]

@bwc113 Wilber was talking about holorchies. Hierarchies are an artificial structure imposed within the same holon. An example of a true holarchy would be me and the earth or my body's cells and me. With the holarchy each level is actually greater but encompasses the one below it. But social hierachies fail to encompass much of human intelligence, feeling and insight thus they are not a true holon.

[bwc113]

@madscirat OK, what then? Do we continue to create these structures? Seems instinctive. With enough focus on awareness and flexibility in dealing with the ongoing shifting in reality, could a hierarchy at least WORK? I wonder if we require tribal groups simply because they're small enough to even begin to grasp the whole picture of interaction within and without. Are we even capable of dropping the whole idea and simple being with what is?

[madscirat]

@bwc113 Sure hierarchies work. Its simply that when they are not based on merit, the people at the top tend to be manipulative douche bags.

[vain911]

are you going make more movies about communes?

[ThePeacevillage]

Living in one commune for 2 years does not entitle you to speak with the authority you do. I can tell you are speaking of EastWind community. However, NOT ALL communities are like them. They are as different as a snowflake is each unique. You speak of there 70.00 each month as though they are being treated wrong in some way. The people who come to a community do so because most of them want something different than the status quo.

[Engineer245]

I would like to add that all societies have similarities to communes. You discribed the very same thing that takes place in any capitalistic society also. However the difference is in the compensation. Without a means of printing money with fake value the society not exist for long. When compensations is real goods value is equitable. However people want more than their effort is worth so by printing paper money they can get more but this inflates the value. A snow ball !

[Engineer245]

Yeah, everyone is not equal but I believe that everyone must have the same status. Everyone must make the same contribution. A person who sits in an office DOES NOT make the same contribution as a person who sweats and toils growing the food. The contribution also is not equal to that is a person who gets greasey fixing the equipment. For it to work everyone must sweat the same amount ! You are correct ! ! ! ! ! ! !