Communities

Collective attempts at living a better life are numerous in human history. Today our attempts are still failing, but not primarily due to oppression, poverty or lack of time. The more important reason is us! We have internalized the patterns which limit cooperation. Some people are still building groups, but the groups are rarely tied to each other.

To build a network of cooperating groups we need a new culture. This begins with how we interact with each other. Instead of reproducing the patterns of abstract value, competition and functionalism we can do this:

• Listen to others (instead of trying to dominate the discourse).
• Encourage people with good ideas. ()
• Be reliable. (E.g., bring back books which you lent from somebody.)
• Build trust.
• Be helpful.
• When having a conflict, get help from the community.
• Keep perspective. Don’t get distracted with social drama.
• Be realistic. (Don’t replace reality with imagination.)
• Be utopian. (Trust yourself and others to put imagination into reality.)
• Be communicative. (Quantity doesn’t matter.)
• Be playful. (Freedom is the playfulness of thought and its transformation into action.)

All this needs to be learnt and requires tools.