Re: ecovillage and sustainability

on 4/28/04 11:14 AM, E.Christopher Mare at [email protected] wrote:

> As far as "gossip/rumor/pettiness" - this is social activity that
> Critchfield ("Villages" - 1983) describes as ubiquitous but serving a
> purpose: maintaining the status quo of social cohesion to ensure
> sustainability. In the village, from what I understand, peer pressure
> replaces allopathic authority, such as police forces. The thought of
> banishment from the group is enough to keep most people behaving with
> civility.

i think that is a good point, peer group pressure outside the hierarchical
traditions imho is necessary to reach levels of individual and social
responsibility that will enable us to learn to let go of competition for
cooperation, a paradigm shift that is still unfolding.....
> 
> Of course, as a North American, I might just crack under such close
> scrutiny; I'm used to having so much privacy! That's OK, once I crack I
> can give up the notion of having a 'self' that needed to be protected.

methinks/feels that the ideal is a balance between idividualism and and
socialism....a balance of independance and closeness that maintains
uniqueness rather than pecking order clones of the "hive
consciousness"....thanks for sharing, aloha,

-- 
forest
[email protected]
http://www.lavazone2.com/forest/


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