THE PARADOX OF OUR TIMES
Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints
We spend more, but we have less.
We have bigger houses, but smaller families
More conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees, but less sense
More knowledge, but less judgment
More experts, but more problems
More medicines, but less wellness.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often
We have learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We have added years to life, but not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back
But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.
We have conquered outer space, but not inner space.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul.
We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We’ve higher incomes, but lower morals.
We’ve become long on quantity but short on quality.
These are the times of tall men, and short character;
Steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare,
More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces;
Of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It is a time when there is much in the show window, and nothing in the stockroom.
A time when technology can bring this letter to you,
And a time when you can choose,
Either to make a difference …. or just hit, delete."
Is this the society we want to live in?
We (Our NeighbourGood) have designed a new system for society, we'd like to share it with you here. This article is an introduction to our thoughts, goals, and desires. It's a handshake greeting to those who wish to embark on this journey with us. It has taken years researching, exploring and learning about these concepts to bring them to you here. It's been challenging attempting to condense such a large scope of an idea into this post; so, if you feel something needs further explanation, I encourage you to discuss it with me in the comments below.
Do you feel like something about society is not quite right?
How much more powerful is it to do something as a group, having multiple hands, eyes, perspectives, and ideas opposed to going it alone?
Imagine you were living in a system where meeting your needs, in turn, helped others meet theirs; which in turn helped you meet yours better! Take Steemit for example, when we work together, we all succeed whereas acting singularly can prove a much more daunting task.
We believe our society has drifted far off that simple course of working together to meet our needs; today we have created a mirage of excessively meeting the needs of a few while unequivocally under-meeting the needs of all of us! We can do better. We must do better!
A Wealthier Society: Let's talk about more than money.
Our societies apply disproportionate value on one type of capital (financial). When 'financial advisers' preach to "diversify our portfolio" they rarely (if ever) diversify outside 1 form of capital. They are financial advisors after-all. A financial portfolio is not a truly diversified portfolio, and gets us no closer to security and happiness regardless of the number! As we see in the Secret Fears of The Super Rich, money doesn't bring security nor happiness. I suggest this is because financial wealth isn't security.
*The wealthiest societies that have yet to come will give equal focus developing all 10 forms of capital, creating true wealth, security, and abundance!
10 Forms Of Capital
| Capital | Currency | Utility |
|---|---|---|
| Experiential (E) | Action | Embodied Experience, Wisdom, etc |
| Intellectual (I) | Knowledge | Ideas, Focus, Problem Solving, Skills, etc |
| Spiritual (Sp) | Intention, Faith, Focus, Karma, etc | Grounding, Balance, Attitude, Passion, Love, etc |
| Social (S) | Influence | Connections, Family, Relationships, etc |
| Material (M) | Physical Resources | Tools, Equipment, etc |
| Financial (F) | Money, Mediums of Exchange | Fiat, Cryptocurrency, Gold, Stock, etc |
| Living (L) | Living Resources | Soil, Plants, Water, Animals, Air, etc |
| Cultural (C) | Song, Story, Ritual, Ceremony, etc | Community |
| Health/Erotic (H) | Energy, Arousal | Motivation, Vitality, Endurance, Attention, Beauty, Strength, Sex, etc |
| Time (T) | Attention | Our Life! |
In our society, if magical little bits in a computer (money) disappeared overnight, people would literally starve. What type of security is that? All we have are these numbers in a bank account (or crypto-wallet), what if they all turned to zero?
If you invest in financial capital for security- ask yourself:
What is a more secure food source? Using money (any form) to buy food picked from halfway across the globe and shipped to your local supermarket using global distribution channels, or picking fresh produce straight from a collaboratively owned food forest in your own backyard? (Also, the health benefits of hyperlocal food is unmatched.)
Crytocurrency and the blockchain, are more secure methods to decentralize our currency and aspects of our economy (this is a powerful avenue, and one that we're fully invested in). However, this still leaves us vulnerable and dependent on a dominant (globally destructive) economy to meet our basic needs. If the economy were to collapse, food distribution channels would be heavily disrupted and people would starve (even more so than is already occurring!) A global economy for meeting consumable needs is an atrocious waste that wreaks havoc across our world. (This is the reason for depleted fisheries, decimated rainforests, polluted air, soil, and water, etc.)
The promise of Cryptocurrency and the blockchain is decentralization of our economy. But why stop there? What I propose is we bring these new realizations to radically decentralize the meeting of all our needs.
Our culture's technology and wealth of knowledge have provided us with affordable and effective systems and tools for meeting all of our basic needs in a decentralized, local ecology and community that would be virtually unaffected by global market disruption. Many of these technologies are ecologically sustainable or regenerative. Thus reversing and mitigating our effects on our climate!
Over the previous centuries since our last massive restructuring of a dominant society- a lot has changed. We've grown a lot, we've learned a lot, we've built a lot! We've accomplished some incredible feats. But now, it is time to take what we have learned and build a new paradigm. A new society where we can better meet our needs and the needs of our earth (ecology)!
What do I mean by needs?
I'm not merely discussing our physiological needs, (food, shelter, water, warmth, rest, etc) I'm speaking of much more. Many of our needs have been unmet for so long we hardly recognize them as needs anymore.
A List of My Needs
| Need | Expression |
|---|---|
| Diversity | Variety, Adventure, Challenge, Surprise, etc |
| Significance | Self - Expression, Meaning, Validation, Feeling Needed, Purpose, Wanted, etc |
| Love | Connection, Communication, Intimacy, Interdependence, Community, etc |
| Growth | Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual Development |
| Contribution | Effectiveness, To Give, Care, and Serve an Idea Greater Than Myself |
| Routine | Consistency, Stability, Grounding, etc |
| Physical Health | Clean Air, Organic Food, Fresh Untainted Water, Exercise, Sexual Expression, Natural Shelter |
| Autonomy | Freedom, Space, Independence, etc |
| Play | Joy, Humour, Passion, Creativity etc |
| Honesty | Authenticity, Integrity, Presence |
| Bliss | Celebration, Nothingness, Relaxation |
Making money as a medium to meeting our needs, is a fragile and insecure method.
Most organizations focus on making money (primarily by participating in the economy) and do not focus on meeting the needs of its employees. As it seems, corporations often fail to acknowledge most needs and forms of capital, giving disproportionate importance to financial capital and little to no concern about its employees' needs (except what is necessary to keep employees 'productive'). This narrow 'economy-centric' objective has created a society where most people's needs go unmet.
We live in a world where progress is quantified by GDP. We foresee a near future where falling GDP signifies progress as we meet our needs outside the money economy!
Decentralizing Our Needs
If you're reading this I imagine you are well aware of some of the 'alternative' technologies, discoveries, governance structures, tools and techniques that work so well in the fringes of our society; but lack mass adoption due to power dynamics. The Internet has decentralized some informational power structures and has allowed many of these discoveries to surface and circulate.
A partial list by Charles Eisenstein:
"Technologies of Reunion include material technologies, social technologies, and also non-material technologies based on a different understanding of what is real. A partial list might include: mycoremediation of toxic waste; composting toilets and graywater blackwater recycling systems; herbal medicine; therapies using psychotropic plants; earth building techniques; sacred architecture; sound healing; hypnosis and mind/matter techniques; nonviolent communication; compassionate listening; sociocracy, holocracy and other group decision-making methods; council processes; gift economics; restorative circles; family constellation work; tantric sexual practices; communication with other-than-human beings; nonviolent methods of political direct action; implosion motors; over-unity energy devices; worker-owned cooperatives and other forms of economic cooperation; biodynamic agriculture; silvopasture; perennial-based horticulture; wetlands restoration; Montessori and Waldorf education; technologies of voice, dance, and mask; the use of trance and dream states…" -Charles Eisenstein
We now have enough pieces necessary to create a more beautiful society.
A More Beautiful Way
It's overwhelming to attempt to understand or restructure entire societies, even talking about it is enough to paralyze someone from taking action. For this reason, we address meeting our needs begining with the most basic elements of society, our familes, our businesses and our neighbourhoods(communities).
Between these 3 we devote the majority of our active time; we seek to bulid our own systems of voluntary collaboration where 100% of that time goes towards meeting our needs, and doing so as beautifully, and effectively as our new understandings allow. This is where we'll start to affect change!
Our NeighbourGood
Just as a healthy forest contains an abundant variety of life, symbiotically creating needs, sharing gifts, and utilizing the 'waste'/abundance of others, a healthy 'NeighbourGood' consists of a wide variety of people, with various passions and enterprise models that will synergistically support the whole! Our NeighbourGood (ON) integrates chosen apects of sustainable-homesteads, co-ops, and eco-villages with progressive technologies, designs, and systems!
Shared ethics and vision is what unites people to create ON's. These ethics will be as diverse as the possibilities of people willing to connect are! The first ON is partnered with The HEART Collaborative (THC ) and will have a shared purpose (for some) to facilitate THC as a collaborative enterprise. This ON will adhere to the ethics laid out by THC.
WHAT
"Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple." -
Bill Mollison
An Our NeighbourGood is a registered co-op (or similar) in the country of its incorporation. It is a separate entity that is equally owned and operated by its Neighbours (members).
ON is not labled as a fully self-sustainable community (though some may chose to have this as an aim). ON is not a commune. ON is a hybrid model designed to transition people out of our current paradigm. ON's aim to provide a substantial amount of our needs while requiring minimal time input. Allowing its' Neighbours to continue employment and interaction with the old paradigm if they desire; while also providing a system and environment that will allow Neighbours to thrive entirely independent of the previous system.
ON will create/provide by/for its Neighbours:
- Land to steward and to build personal (or shared) housing.
- Potential ON dividends.
- Commons to reduce overhead for high-quality of life.
- A regenerative ecological footprint.
- Growing equity.
- A society and shared purpose (community/organization).
- Radical affordability.
- Radical transparency.
- Relationships with people striving for similar goals.
- Guidance, design, and possible labour for ecological housing (financing for housing is personal).
- 90%-100% utilities. (Combined between personal housing and ON's production.)
- 50%-90% required nutrient/vitality/medicinal-dense food. (Combined between personal gardens/forests and ON's food systems.)
Our NeighbourGood, as an organization, consists of 2 main components. I'll use the analogy of hardware and software.
Hardware
These are forms of capital that ON will typically own.
Landbase:
Our NeighbourGood consists of a physical area of land where each Neighbour owns an identical share of ON and is allocated land to steward. Depending on the environment (rural, suburban, urban) ON's will typically commit 33-66% of the land for family or singles' housing/homesteads. The other 34-67% of the land will be held in commons by the NeighbourGood and made accessible to all Neighbours. This land will consist of the community centers, community food production systems, beautifully stewarded native lands, community enterprises, and the Transition Facilitation Center(for the first ON).
This reduces the financial burden on any 1 Neighbour, as land is more economical at scale. Collaboratively owning a piece of land extends our sense-of-self to encompass more than our personal dwellings.
Shares in ON act as a "title" for land. If you want to transfer your dwelling as you would in the old paradigm you sell your shares exactly as you would land (a lien is held against the original title to secure this.) In this case there is a lot more value to be had in those shares opposed to simply a house.
Food Forests, Intensive Gardens, Aquaculture, Silvopasture Stewardship:
These methods are high yielding food production systems created for/by THC, participants, and Our NeighbourGood! The food created here will serve to lower operating costs for collaborators of THC and living expenses for the Neighbours. These methods aim to provide 90% of the food necessary for THC and ON. Stewards (outside help, if required) may receive various forms of capital (including financial) compensation for managing these systems.
Community Center and Material Library
Creating access to The Millionaire Lifestyle will be through the creation of a community center and material library. This centrally located beautifully created natural building will be fully equipped with the highest quality materials (made feasible by the economies of scale with collaboration). A community center may contain:
- a commercial sized, high-quality kitchen.
- a natural swimming pool.
- a theater/VR/recreation room.
- a gym/fitness area.
- unlimited Internet access.
- shared library.
- ideation and design lab.
- etc.
Possessions commonly found in millionaire mansions (where tragically they go unused for 99% of the time).
Not only does this drastically increase our personal access to goods, this model increases the quality of items, reduces waste and promotes social interaction and community.
Material Library
A Material Library within the community center will provide access to most things that have a high-overhead cost and low time use. The majority of our materials that we buy today, we use but for a fraction of the time they are capable of being used.
Example:
Say I wanted access to a $3000 camera for occasional pictures. 99% of the time my camera goes unused. I could have collaboratively bought this camera and received the same utility for a fraction of the cost! Further, since it's only a fraction of the cost we may agree to buy a $5000 camera instead (if there were 15 Neighbors I would pay $333 opposed to $3000 and have access to a better quality camera!)
ON's only own assets that its' Neighbours wish to collaboratively own. This is accomplished with simple, streamlined governance and decision-making processes. Further, ON's are a system of rules and structures (agreed upon by all members) that organize the neighbors around the common purpose of better meeting the needs of the whole.
Commons Without The Tragedy:
You may have heard of the tragedy of the commons:
"The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory of a situation within a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their action."
We avoid this tragedy by expanding what constitues one's 'self interest' to include Our NeighbourGood (through direct ownership), further we avoid this issue by removing 'independence' from communal resources. We are interdependent actors within our system, not indepenedent actors.
Example, say a Neighbour (Amy) wanted to use the communal gym to teach yoga classes for a personal enterprise. She would bring a proposal to the other Neighbours and through a well defined decision making process the Neighbours establish a proposal that works for the best interests of all.
The end result may be she offers 15% (opposed to 35%+ typical gyms require) of her earnings (a form of rent) to Our NeighbourGood (which she collectively owns) for use of the gym space. This money is used for purposes defined by the Neighbours. She benefits on the front end from a reduced rent and benefits on the backend by having all her money stay within the system that she collectively owns and that is dedicated to increasing her quality of life!
A goal of ON's economic system is to retain as much value within the system as possible by reducing outputs (Amy paying rent to an outside gym).
(On a larger scale an ON may adopt a demurrage-based cryptocurrency for interactions within ON. With a taxable exchange to other crypto or fiat to promote inter-ON economics.)
Neighborhood of Natural Homes
Naturally Built Intentional Homes will give Neighbours a higher quality of life with heavily reduced maintenance/utility bills. Homes are built using personal funds on land provided by ON.These homes:
- Catch, clean and recycle rainwater.
- Create energy demands for the home.
- Grow food.
- Are optimally designed and built to maintain inside temperature with minimum heating and cooling.
- Recycle human waste generating natural gas as a byproduct (this gas can be used in the kitchen for burning).
- Are built with non-toxic materials.
- Are earthquake and fire resistant.
- Are potentially carbon neutral.
- Are radically affordable and can scale to most any budget!
- Are the most beautiful homes I have ever seen!
Our aim is to have our homes meet 30%-80% (depending on desire) of our basic needs of food, water, energy, and shelter. (With a goal for the remaining 10%-60% to be met with communal resources.)
Further, some of these homes will be built by the hands of our Neighbours and participants of THC, adding story, love and another depth of beauty and relationship not found in our homes today.
)Software
This is where the real magic happens! How do we optimally organize and relate to each other, our natural world, and our technologies to better meet our needs?
There have been several facscinating appraches to this question lately:
- Holacracy
- Sociocracy
- Deliberately Developmental Organization
- Non-Violent Communication
- Autonomous Accountability: Automatic systems that ensure accountability and create balance.
"Holacracy explores a new tier of organization and culture only recently available to us, and so it is a new practice, one still emerging, and one which takes us into territory still largely unexplored. Fortunately, those organizations practicing Holacracy now have begun to map some of the contours of this new territory, and there is much we can say. It is about living and working together in the fullest possible way, and evolving the organizations and cultures we exist within to the next step along their natural evolutionary journey. It is about embracing everything we've learned so far about human organization and culture, and at the same time seeking to fundamentally transcend all aspects of our current organizational and cultural norms. It is about regrouping around a profoundly deeper level of meaning and capability, so that we can more artfully navigate the increasing complexity and uncertainty in today's world, while more fully finding and expressing our own highest potential. Holacracy is about relating and organizing in ways that enable and sustain this quantum leap – ashift to a new level of organization and culture as fundamental as the leap from the feudal systems of old to the democracies of today." Brian J Robertson (founder holocracy)
Discussing in depth the proccesses of these schools of thought, and the structure we have developed is outside the scope of this introduction and is addressed at length in the 'ON Governance Practice and Developmental Society'
ON will begin with an amalgamation of these approaches. As we practice several methods we'll grow more adept at discerning what is effective methods of interacting and what is not (which will vary per ON but allow cross pollination between ON's). This is why we are called 'deliberately developmental' as we are deliberate in developing new and more beautiful methods of inter-being.
This process is a collaborative open-source endeavor as each ON practices these skills they share with other ON's and this information is open to the public where they can contribute to the process! This is where we incubate and design societies for the new world!
What excited us most about ON is the environment that ON facilitates and the culture this promotes. A culture of dissolved limitations, radical truth, affordability, and transparency. A culture of efficient and beautiful needs creation which realizes the inherent beauty and value in our natural world. A place where our Neighbours are our tribe and help us realize a new world by taking action to create it. A society of abundance where no-one is worried about meeting their needs, or survival. A society unbound by time, where people are free to interact, engage, and create in the moment. A society that promotes deep listening and authentic relationships, that are not based on economic gain. A place where we don't have to worry if someone is trying to 'cheat' us as there is no longer a motive to do so.
[The HEART Collaborative (THC)] (https://steemit.com/spirituality/@rieki/introducing-the-heart-collaborative-facilitating-our-transition-into-the-societies-of-the-future-while-creating-a-more-beautiful), in conjunction with ON will focus on facilitating the internal transformation to rid us of our old programming and prepare us for a new society!
ON is an experimental culture, full of Neighbours willing to be part of this experiment. We will be in the process of living the change and creating alternative societies that will replace our present paradigm while transforming ours.
HOW
A group of people (A - I) get together to create an Our NeighbourGood. This particular group wants this to take place in a suburban context and fortunately one of the potential members own land. They determine this land can support 15 households with communal land comprising the majority. There are 9 now which leaves room for 6 more shares. Various prices exist for family and single dwellings, but for the sake of this example, everyone is single. They reason that 510K USD will be adequate to build all community infrastructure they need.
Since the process is open-source any group of people can follow our process laid out online!
Or as a group they apply to attend an ON facilitation proccess at THC (The HEART Collaborative), which is focused on helping individuals prepare themselves for this type of organization and living, while helping the group establish community and structure while demonstrating ON. THC is an ON enterprise built to incubate ON's. THC also pairs individuals and groups based on profiles, interviews, and capital offerings to create potential ON Neighbour pairings. Those who successfully completed the Transition Facilitation Center groups will go on to establish ON's
The first thing any ON does is establish meaning.
- Will they have a central enterprise they will run?
- What are their defining ethics?
- What are they aiming to accomplish?
Then we move into setting up Initial capital.
Collaborative Capital Exchange Contracts (CCEC): These are agreements drafted up by members of the existing ON and a potential new member. This allows and promotes people with a diversity of capital to come into the organization and have an equal stake. This process better places value on whole people, not just bits in a bank. This allows Our NeighbourGood to add members who best add value to the culture.
Example, 9 people form an ON. I will give some simple examples of CCEC's. These are done dynamically and on a case by case basis with each ON needing and receiving diverse capital.
Example Collaborative Capital Exchange Contracts (CCEC)
Our NeighbourGood Members CCEC:
Ex (T) = Time Capital (see capital chart above)
Hrs/Wk = Hours a Week
Communal Time Exchange (CTE): CTE's will vary based on ON's needs and is determined voluntarily by all Neighbours in order to meet the needs of ON. If the members agree to commit more time, this goes up, if they decide to reduce this time it will go down, but remain equal for all Neighbours. The tasks performed vary widely. This diversity keeps these efforts fun, interesting and dynamic. Some examples include growing food, creating buildings, maintaining communal spaces, advancing communal owned enterprise, knowledge share, etc
Example CCEC
| Name | Upfront Capital | Recurring Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| A........ | 150K USD (F) | 90 USD/Wk (F) / CTE 3 Hrs/Wk (T) |
| B........ | 20 BTC (50K USD) (F) / Expansive Seed Bank (L) / Communal Permaculturist 15 hrs/week for 222 weeks* (Valued 30 USD/h) (T, E, I) | Communal Permaculturist 5 Hrs/Wk (T, E, I) / CTE 3 Hrs/Wk (T) |
| C........ | 10 Hectares Land (M) / 50 Fruiting Trees and River (L) | Build Social Connections with Local Government and Community 2 Hrs/Wk (S, T, E) / CTE 6 Hrs/Wk (T) |
| D........ | 130k USD (F) / Our NeighbourGood Legal Documents | CTE 8 Hrs/Wk |
| E........ | 80K USD (F) / Communal Professional Yoga Instruction 7 hrs/Wk for 250 weeks* (Valued 40 USD/h)(T, E, I) | CTE 8 Hrs/Wk (T) |
| F........ | 50K USD of Homesteading Equipment (M) / 100K USD (F) | Community Facilitator 2 Hrs/wk (S, I, T) / Community Dynamics Knowledge Share 2 Hrs/Wk (E, I, T) / CTE 4 Hrs/Wk |
| G........ | 20K USD Building Equipment (M) / 20K USD (F) / Communal Natural Builder and Architect 20 hrs/week for 184 weeks* (valued 30USD/h) (T, E, I) | Communal Natural Building and Maintenance 8 Hrs/Wk |
| H........ | 10K Medical Equipment (M) 100K USD (F) Community Naturopath 4 Hrs/Wk for 167 weeks (Valued 80 USD/h) | Community Naturopath 2 Hrs/Wk / CTE 6 Hrs/Wk |
| I........ | 20K Various Food Production Systems (M) / 10k USD (F) Passionate Horticulturist 20 Hrs/Wk for 200 weeks (Valued 30 USD/h) | Passionate Horticulturist 8 Hrs/Wk |
Each ON will have its own purpose (vision/mission/aim) driving its existence (some will have a central enterprise, such as hemp cultivation) to reflect a shared purpose of its Neighbours and to meet the needs of the local ecology. This means the diversity of ON's will reflect the diversity of our world's population, effectively designating every person as a potential Neighbour given the appropriate Neighbours and facilitation.
Communication takes place on a community platform (similar to slack) where proposals and discussion take place on most topics. This supersedes the need for physical meetings, allowing people to contribute information on their own schedule without dealing with power dynamics typically present in physical meetings. Physical meetings discussing ON will be seldom, as we would like to reserve our physical gatherings for connecting, celebrating and growing! This eliminates much of the frustration found in similar cohousing and community systems.
Once established each ON determines parameters for collaboration and creates proposals and visions they would like to accomplish.
The first ON will have a collaborative enterprise (THC) that it supports. Many Neighbours of the first ON may not be involved with THC in any capacity and may have their own enterprises. The Aim of the first ON is:
- beautifully meet our needs!
- to provide an environment of abundance to promote and encourage creativity in our Neighbours.
- to holistically integrate ecological, economic, social, and cultural dimensions to regenerate social and natural environments.
- to explore, research, trial and build a new social structure.
- to intentionally design a culture, with our own song, ceremony, ritual, and art.
- to acquire skills that will help our world transition and develop useful and valued tools for a transformed world.
- to deprogram from conventional society and have a sanctuary in which to develop a passion and calling.
- to bond with a cohort who share a common vision of what the world can be.
- to test, incubate, and develop technologies to prepare them for wider application.
'Concentration-of-Wealth'
A concentration of wealth is generally considered an issue (it is if it's concentrating into the hands of a few at the expense of the many). However, concentrating the wealth of a society that equally benefits its members and global community has the potential to transform our world!
Our dominate society sees dispassionate jobs harnessing the whole of our (time/experience/intellectual/social) capital, the entertainment industry monopolizing our (cultural/spiritual/time) capital and banks(through mortgages/credit)/non-local organizations receiving the largest share of our financial capital. We seek to divert those capital flows into one organization, Our NeighbourGood, that we own- along with our community. We raise our collective quality of life through meeting our needs in our co-owned NeighbourGood, focusing our capital streams and tapping into the abundance provided by nature, (living capital rain/sun/wind/plants/animals) through this we become the wealthiest (in all forms of capital) communities/organizations/ecologies, attracting others to join/create and assisting in supplanting the dominant culture.
Societies of the Future
Neighbours collaborating in Our NeighbourGood will enjoy more leisure and a higher quality of life than is typically found in our dominant society as we finally reap the rewards our technology has promised. With this increased leisure we'll be able to pursue our passions, which in turn will create more beauty in the world and possible avenues of capital creation for ourselves and Our NeighbourGood. With Our NeighbourGood we provide Neighbours with more abundance, the healthiest food, pure water, meaningful relationships, waste-less habits, economic security, and passion-driven lifestyles! What's best, is that we fully embody inter-being by collaboratively owning the whole NeighbourGood! This means, that as the commons grow more valuable, our personal value increases. This will ensure that our commons are well stewarded, as they have now become a more integrated part of our being!
Imagine living in a society where all of your Neighbours were dedicated to improving your community, focusing their time on making the world a more beautiful place. Imagine if all your Neighbours had the same vision as you (though diverse in the approach), were readilly eager to collaborate with you as your success is directly related to thier success! Imagine having the time to collaborate with these people regularly as we all played together at making a more beautiful world! Imagine a society where we had enough 'free time' to do the activies we truly love!
Imagine your community was dedicated to being the best community it could be. Imagine if this community constantly supported each other to become the best people they could be!
Many Minds are hard-pressed to conceive of the beauty and wonder a life like this would entail, and since they can't conceive it they tell us it is not possible...
Our NeighbourGood
A semi-Autonomous, Deliberately Developmental, Open-Source Society, and Holistic Cooperative
What's in a name:
- A Semi-Autonomous: Systems and structures non-human managed to enforce certain aspects of the organization.
ex: If one member did not contribute their agreed upon CTE, a process can automatically reduce thier share of the organization to reflect this imbalance. - Deliberately Developmental: Our ethos that we are deliberate in developing ourselves and Our NeighbourGood and have designed our system to accommodate this growth.
- Open-Source Society: We will share all our knowledge and understandings with other ON's and the world.
- Holistic Cooperative: HEART-centric ethics.
- (H)olism
- (E)cocentrism
- (A)lturism
- (R)egenerative
- (T)ransfomative
This is an open-source project. If this interests you and you would like to get involved, please share your ideas! Let's create the next evolution of human societies!
I will be releasing blog posts on Steem related to various benefits, economic models and governance structures associated with Our NeighbourGood. Feedback through this process will help to refine the details and is greatly appreciated!
I believe that people are inherently beautiful and kind. I believe that people only act contradictory to this based on their envionment and the degree in which their needs are being met. I believe that if we can build a society where everyone's needs are equally met, we will be living in a world of love that is difficult to comprehend. I want this world. I need this world. I need my kids to grow up in this world with other kids growing up in this world. Nearly every living being on this earth, needs humanity to create this world!
I'll leave you with a beautiful quote by Charles Eisenstein.
“The more beautiful world my heart knows is possible is a world with a lot more pleasure: a lot more touch, a lot more lovemaking, a lot more hugging, a lot more deep gazing into each other’s eyes, a lot more fresh-ground tortillas and just-harvested tomatoes still warm from the sun, a lot more singing, a lot more dancing, a lot more timelessness, a lot more beauty in the built environment, a lot more pristine views, a lot more water fresh from the spring. Have you ever tasted real water, springing from the earth after a twenty-year journey through the mountain? None of these pleasures is very far away.” ― Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
Rieki
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It's very nice to see more cooperative agorist posts on Steem! Keep 'em coming! =)
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Thank you so much for noticing! I put a monumental amount of effort in creating these posts trying to spread solutions for our world! Keep up the good work on creating more awareness for under-noticed content!
Interesting! I wish you every success and sincerely hope that you get the opportunity to try these ideas out in practise - "let a thousand communities bloom".
I wholly support the idea of "startup" societies allowing people to experiment in practice with alternative ways of life and organisation. (https://www.startupsocieties.com/)
I suppose you are familiar with seasteading and The Seasteading Institute's "eight moral imperatives"? If you haven't already seen these videos, you may want to do so as some similar ideas are being expressed there.
Good luck! And keep us informed of your progress here on Steemit.
Thank you :) Startup societies is great! I learned about it not too long ago. Thank you for sharing :)
The seasteading institute I heard about as well. Never seen anything about their moral imperatives though. Something I could definitely get behind (living on the sea, not-so-much). I believe what I'm advocating for is certainly not just my idea... It's in the noosphere (which is how I came upon it to begin with) We see it permeating all corners of our society and ideas and new cultures springing up as ours dies. We will have a future with much more diversity in systems than we do today, it's exhilarating!
Indeed it is! We live in interesting times.
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STOPThat sound like a very well written plan, the only thing I see as an obstacle is that people like to do things their way, and if everybody agrees, but there is one person that doesn't it is going to get interesting... There are a lot of things that will need to be discussed and I think it will be pretty impossible that everybody agrees, every decision made will raise at least 2 different opinions.
That being said, people can always come to a compromise if egos are not too big and it would be amazing to build communities that raise each other, are self sustainable, etc. I love the idea of people being in harmony with each other. And this post reminded me that I own 17ha of land that might be useful one day :)
Thank you for your response :)
It is absolutely paramount that everyone be allowed to do things by their own choice. Always.
Using holacracy, sociocracy, n-street consensus and various collaboration/virtual meeting techniques (I will detail more in a governance post) We can easily collaborate (at will) on topics we chose to collaborate on and come to the best decisions to enact where everyone will be satisfied. If someone is not...
"will raise at least 2 different opinions."
This is an opportunity to revise and strengthen the plan. All critiques to the proposal if to be incorporated have to be founded and reasonable. If there are immediate critiques to a proposal then they all must be incorporated to create the best plan. Or/and evolution/time limits are set to re-evaluate contentious proposals and test them out.
Fortunately for us, people have been seriously evolving this community model (in our present culture) since the 60's and have created vast amounts of information on how to avoid most pitfalls from the start :)
The methods I'll mention in the later post will detail how individual egos are of little importance when it comes to the governance of the whole (opposed to today where our government is dominated by egos).
Land is useful every-day!! :)
Maybe you would become inspired to start an Our NeighbourGood on it!
Haha, I have been so busy lately and the post was so long(I still wanted to read it asap) that I might have glazed over some solutions, thank you for answering my concerning questions. :)
I would love to start something like that one day, for now I am working on solutions to make sure I don't have to have 9 to 5 job. Passive income generation is the first thing on my list. Baby steps :)
Of course , I understand :)
Passive income is miraculous. I would also recommend reducing the need for income. It's the other side of the coin. We don't have to make as much if we don't need to make as much for the same quality of life :)
True, we are doing that already with our garden, a lot of vegetables there. I learned a lot from my grandparents about gardening, mushrooms and natural medicine when I was little and lived on the countryside :)
Sounds amazing :) What prompted you to leave the countryside?
My house there is run down, it has mold and there is nothing to do to save it. I want to be able to rebuild everything there, some horses, chickens, etc. But before that I need to be ready, I traveled the world and I want to find what I really want to do, I need to find myself first :) I haven't lived in my countryside since I was a little girl, except the occasional visit, but when I go next time I want to stay.