Forum Post: Communes
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 7, 2011, 9:14 p.m. EST by MVSN
(768)
from Stockton, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
What do you think of communes? Everything owned in common. Everyone responsible for raising the children. Everything for the benefit of all.
I think powers that push consumerism are hell-bent against carpools, shared air-conditioning, shared pots and pans. Let's encourage extended families to live together the way other countries do. Grandma lives in the spare room, helps with the kids. It is corporatocracy that made us hate this idea.
I think you are trying to make it look like OWS is a communist movement and it is not that at all. This movement is seeking fairness, not equality. OWS is pro-capitalist.
I'm not making OWS look like anything. I'm simply asking a question. Don't be so paranoid.
Okay. Thanks for explaining.
Communes are not all the same. "Intentional community" is now the preferred term. Check 'em out at www.ic.org.
http://www.ic.org/
If you click on directory, it will show different types of "intentional communities".
I am an extremely private person so, I am not sure that I could handle all of that. It would really depend on how it was devised. Although, if we do not have substantial changes within our system than we may be forced into that.
You could start a commune and call it "Galt's Gulch." That would be funny.
I think b f skinner should have fallen and broken his neck as a child . . . .
It might work for you, but it doesn't for me. Like anything, just don't be too fundamental about it.
Welcome back Peoples Temple Agricultural Project and Spahn Ranch. Good times.
I think it's an OK idea.
Being in a commune would be somewhat like camping with your friends, or being part of an Occupy camp. Some people work very hard, some people just loaf around and enjoy the benefits of everyone else's hard work. The success of the commune depends on the ratio of workers to loafers.
When you say 'everything owned in common', I am assuming you mean the produce/ profit? You can run into problems if people start insisting that their personal belongings be turned over 'for the good of the commune'.
I think what you are suggesting is the way that humans have lived for tens of thousands of years, before the idea of 'wealth' was created. The American Indians often lived in societies like this. Karl Marx called this 'Primitive Communism'. (By which he meant, Communal-ism).
Israeli Kibbutzes were a lot like this. They grew their own food and usually made a product for trading with another kibbutz. There were no 'Jim Jones' cult leaders, since Jim Jones was a CIA plant.
As someone else mentioned, Christians have a history of communes in the USA as well. I am thinking especially about the Shakers. Walden Two was also a commune, created along atheistic & scientific principals.
I say communes are only 'OK' because they are neither terrible nor terrific. They are groups comprised of people, and people make mistakes. A lot of the hippie communes in the 1960s never got beyond a sustenance level, although arguably that is at least being self-reliant.
I say give it a try.
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Using "simplesimon" 's brilliant logic, just because Charles Manson had a grilfriend, NONE of us should have a grirlfriend!!!
Thanks man. I heard a few people escaped from down there. Glad you made it. You join another one if you want...whatever blows your dress up.
Still stuck on "Mr. Dress Up", are ya? How old are you, Simple Simon?
Well bubba, that has nothing to do with communes now, does it? I know you can read, and you can define non-sequitir argument, so try sticking with that. If you wanna kibbutz go right ahead.
Ha! ha! ha! A TROLL doesn't like to get TROLLED, I see!
Now you know how I feel!
Oh no bubba! I'll go round and round with you no problem because you LIKE that. The truth is whatever you want it to be. I don't own your rabbit mind, and you don't own mine.
Maybe a little religion like happens in a kibbutz will be good for you and your bretheren. Please, please form one! It would be mahvelous!
Maybe YOU TOO have hidden spiritual aspirations that you have yet to uncover...
Oh yeah man. My body is a temple. I eat great food that is good for me but somehow ending taking an OWS about a day later. I don't like taking an OWS and then wiping my TIOUAISE, but hygiene demands it. Both get flushed away.
All drains lead to the ocean don't they?
I like the spirit and intentions but they hardly work on a small scale of dedicated people and never would satisfy the interests of thousands or millions or billions. They are necessary in some ways though and could be the future when everything falls apart. Are you thinking of experimenting?
They suck.
I prefer my nice house and all my possessions to be mine and only mine and my family's.
Your family is a community
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mkRFCtl2MI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewGMBOB4Gg
http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/
http://blog.thezeitgeistmovement.com/
http://www.thevenusproject.com/
Would not want to be a part of one. Hope if they come to pass that I have the option to opt out.
Thanks but no thanks.
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There are or, at least, were when I last visited, communes all over Israel, called kibbutzim. Calling communes "an incredibly stupid idea" like one of the trolls below is IMO an INCREDIBLY STUPID GENERALIZATION.
BTW, communes are also a profoundly CHRISTIC idea. According to the "Book of Acts", the first generations of the "people of the Way" - disciples of Jesus - shared everything in common and found incredible joy in doing so.
Possessiveness cannot give you that kind of joy... In fact, they say that when we are overly attached to our possessions, THEY in fact possess US.
Hay man, join a kibbutz! You don't have a hair on your ass if you don't. I want you to join and share everything right here with your communal brothers and sisters. But you won't do that because you are a hypocrite. You will VISIT, but you won't change your way of living. The irony. You are pro-kibbutz, pro-commune, but you would not dare practice what you preach. A hypocrite of the highest order you are. You are a big box store shopping, corporate employed environmentalist working for MONSANTO. LMAO!
Typical TROLL B.S. from "simplesimon"...
I posted this satirical piece on "Moninsanito" three weeks ago...
http://occupywallst.org/forum/yet-another-miracle-gmo-food-brought-to-you-by-mon/
Its uh an incredibly stuoid idea. I'm already responsible for the education of almost every child in this country and I don't want to take care of everyone else's. As for property, if I buy it, it is mine.
You are 16 and responsible for nobody probably.
Taxes I pay go somewhere. I have to pay for everyone else in my school to go to school do I not? And if not then I will have to and I do not like the idea. That was the bottom line.
I just think that you have less to complain about than somebody who works full time and isn't actually currently attending public school benefiting from those tax dollars. Do you know what kind of countries don't have public schools? Read a book about Africa sometime.
You may be correct but I still don't like it and I'm in the system. How do you feel?
I have had a few thousand psychedelic experiences in my lifetime and a lot of time to think things through so I have a strong sense of compassion and empathy for others.
Well that is incredible. I've had zero drug induces experiences and it may be my limited experience but I feel that people should work for what they want.
I didn't when I was your age. That is probably for the best. Someday you may go through something of an existential crisis though and some drugs or just plants rather can help. I am not advocating a welfare state and handouts for the lazy but I don't think people should be forced to work before they have opportunities at a free education.
Actually to be perfectly honest I agree with you and I must have been high when I wrote what I did. Public services should be provided by the government including but not exactly limited to eduction and roads. Sorry about that I guess I actually was trolling.
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