Manifesto for the Peoples of the Third MillenniumManifesto for the Peoples of the Third Millennium(version 2.1, May, 2003)The world needs true political, cultural and intellectualdiversity, not the uniformity pursued by those whomarch in step under the banner of "diversity."These early years of the Twenty-first Century are dominated by a kind of universalism which is a strange synthesis of "progressive"universalism, such as the doctrines of "multiculturalism"taught in university social science departments, andthe "conservative" universalism of global capitalism.It is actually neither progressive nor conservative.It is a complex system for aggregating power in theservice of a relatively small number of individuals.After numerous changes of mind on social, politicaland philosophical questions, I'vedeveloped a healthy sense of skepticism and humility.Thus, I am not advocating someexisting body of ideas such as socialism,feudalism, eco-feminismor free-market capitalism, nor does this manifesto elaborate any similar system of my ownconcoction. Instead, I discuss a general way of thinking about the development of social alternatives. Diverse ideas must be tried and no individual mind is capableof generating a true multiplicity of approaches to questions of human progress.The world faces huge, almost incomprehensibledangers. I believe that the leaders of present world order areincapable of addressing them.That leaves it to the rest of us to form independentframeworks for the cultivation of collective intelligenceand community strength.I hope the steps I recommend are general enoughto be applied by individuals and groups of many differenttendencies. We can imagine a stable, peaceful, just, prosperous and pleasantorder of human life existing in some kind of harmonywith a highly diverse, fascinating, inspirational andnurturing natural world, but we don't know the detailsof such a world and wedon't know how to get there. Those of us who aretruly concerned should consider ways of thinking and livingthat bypass our hopelessly corrupt "intellegensia."This manifesto is intended as a step in that direction.Individual StudyWhy would you even care about building a better society? What is wrongwith this one? What would be the main features of a society you wouldrather live in? What kinds of people would you like to have as co-constructors?How can you meet such people? Are you familiar with any attempts at buildingnew societies that dramatically failed? Or ones that succeeded, even ifin limited ways? What are some dangers to be avoided? What points mightincrease your chances of success?You should address these issues first through personal study, observationand reflection.Interactive ReadingSerious reading is interactive. One point of an extended period of individualstudy is to get comfortable with that interaction between text and yourself,outside any institutional contexts, religious or secular, public or private,that steer you towards their own interpretations of things and that tendto suppress your development as a critical thinker - even if they includecourses in "critical thinking."I have spirited arguments with the books I read. I fill the margins withcomments. I enjoy many books that I disagree with. One of my favoritesis The Communist Manifesto. What a wild, wacky book! Very muchworth reading because it is both historically important and intellectuallystimulating. But intoxication, intellectual or otherwise, is not an accurategage of truth. Understanding the appeal of a text without beingtaken in by all of it will enhance your critical thinking skills.The BibleI recommend that you read the Bible carefully from cover to cover. Usereference books (a Bible dictionary, etc.) to learn more about the peoples,cultures and technologies of Biblical times. Have several translationsavailable. The King James Bible tends to be very poetical in many passages.The Jerusalem Bible is a more literal translation. The text and notesin it can help you understand some of the more difficult passages. Youmight prefer to do your main reading from yet a different translation.If you already adhere to some Christian sect or denomination, you will probably already have some kind of framework for studyand interpretation of the text. If not, I suggestthat at first you avoidsectarian groups or interpretive writings.It is best, in my opinion, tolearn the text itself, not systems other people have derived from it.The Bible is the most important book in Western Civilization, but there is an added benefit to reading it that some people mightnot realize: A serious student, always asking, "Is this true?" or"What does this mean?" and not taking any of it lightly, isbuilding a foundation for true critical thinking, as well asfor further studies in history and literature.UniversitiesIf you are soon to graduate from high school, you might consider notgoing to college right away. Social, political, cultural and psychologicalsubjects tend to be taught at universities from viewpoints having labelssuch as "liberal," or "multicultural," or even "progressive." This isoften done in the name of "challenging your preconceptions."I need to explain myself. In some ways I am an old-fashioned liberal.For America, I'd say the best system is basically market oriented, withreasonable regulations in place for things like environmental protection,worker safety, and so on. I don't fundamentally disagree with things likewelfare and social security. There will always be need for reform! ButI do not like the weird thing that "liberalism" has turned into.(I should mention that "mainstream conservatism," in thisage of G.W.B. the mighty sky-warrior, has also mutated into something repulsive.)The study of cultures and peoples other than one's own should be a significantpart of anyone's education. But I do not like the weird cult of "multiculturalism" that now dominatesacademia. As to academia's phony "progressivism," if you read their grandiositiescarefully, you will find that the promoters of such notions always definethemselves as "agents" or "architects," while regarding most members ofacademic communities and especially citizens outside of academia as objects to be manipulated by the tenured secular priesthood. The problem isn't privilege or"elitism," the problem is that the members of the elite are loyalonly to each other and not to the societies supporting them in their privilegedoccupations. A period of independent study can help prepare you to think criticallyabout what universities try to teach you. You need to think especiallycritically about any doctrines of critical thinking, including this one!You need to prepare yourself to challenge the preconceptions of those whowould challenge your preconceptions.ConservativesYour readings should include conservative books and magazines, where youwill find views somewhat contrary to many of the things "taught" at universities.It is good for your mind to study well presented arguments on differentsides of many issues. If you plan on attending a college where conservativeviews are dominant, then I'd recommend that you read some liberal booksbeforehand.These days, serious conservatives tend to have a better grasp of how societies work than "liberals" or "progressives" do. How do familiesreally work? How should they work? Are they fundamental to theupbringing of new generations, or are they mainly a mechanism fordeciding who gets insurance benefits? On family and other issues,even true progressives can learn many useful things from conservative books.FeminismThe word "feminism" covers a huge range of different ideas. Some feministsare themselves interested in building new societies, and some of the topicscovered by feminists could be of interest to anyone attempting to builda new society. How, for example, and why do young females try to altertheir bodies to conform to socially constructed stereotypes? Should girlsbe exposed to healthier, more positive images of what it means to be femaleor attractive?We can ask more general questions: How do boys learn how to be men? Howdo they develop concepts of what is attractive or unattractive in a female?How does courtship work these days? How should it work?Once we start thinking about the constructedness of things, we naturallywonder how we might deliberately do a better job of constructing. Feministsseem to have a sense of social plasticity that conservatives lack.Some pre-college exposure to feminist writings would give you time to thinkof some interesting questions, have some interesting discussions, beforetaking actual courses (in sociology or whatever) taught from a feministperspective.Ideological Power ToolsIt is sometimes said that ideologies are mere pretextsfor the exercise of power. For example, when George W.Bush talks about spreading freedom and democracy, he is justifying military intervention. When Mary Sue Coleman,President of the University of Michigan, talks about the importance of a radical preferential admissionssystem for the sake of a "diverse democracy," she is uttering a shibboleth pleasing to the ears of the membersof the powerful cliques with whose blessings she obtained her half-million dollar per year job withall of its lush perquisites.You need to be alert for what I call the fallacy of asymmetrical deconstruction: the words and ideas ofone side of an issue are relentlessly "unmasked"as propaganda, as justifications forfundamentally illegitimate authority,while the clichés and trivialities of the other side pass without comment. The real issue of power, for most of us, has nothingto do with wanting to rule the world or enslave other people. It's a question of having the powerto create for ourselves lives that arefulfilling and consistent with the better aspects of our true natures.Unmasking the agendas of a major power tripper is a worthwhileexercise, but you should also consider unmaskingthe agendas of the unmaskers.Newspapers and TVIt's a fine thing to read the papers to follow current events and publicaffairs. It is even better to ask questions like: In what ways do newspapersand other media shape or influence public opinion? How deliberate is thisprocess? How are news stories slanted?The media question may interest you if your main purpose is reform of ourexisting society. You can learn things by studying how an issue is presented.For example, the United States was involved in a rather one-sided war fora few months during 1999. When I write about it, I always refer to itas "Bill Clinton's criminal bombing campaign against the people of Yugoslavia."That's my true opinion about what it was, but I couldn't blame you if youdidn't think I was being "objective." However, I've read articles in regularbig-city dailies that use the term "America's humanitarian interventionin Kosovo." Now, if you question their objectivity, they might reply, "Haha! 'Objective'!! What's 'objective'??Tee-hee.. NO ONE'S REALLY 'OBJECTIVE'! Oh my God, you are SOOO backward!!"Gulf War II provided an even better opportunity for media analysis. Naturally, the TV network that most assiduously and obsequiously served the interests of theBush administration continuously advertised itself as"fair and balanced." By clipping papers, annotating the clips and filing them, you might beginto notice some interesting patterns that will help you analyze the powerstructures of our existing order. Plus, you will start thinking aboutthe general question of channels of information, quality of public debate,etc., etc., and what those things should be like in your alternative society.There are myriad ways you could study media. All are optional! If newspapersor TV do not interest you, then do not waste your time on them.The InternetThe Internet is an amazing medium for independent study. Many universitiesnow require students to have their own computers so they can access theInternet. This is amusing, because you can learn much from the Internetwithout ever setting foot on university soil. And you should be able tolearn great, important things at a university without ever coming withinfifty feet of a Web browser. The two "media" almost seem to be inherentlyantagonistic. When universities start advocating the unfocused, serendipitous,non-hierarchical, ad-hoc, collaborative kinds of learning that the Internetmakes possible, we should say, "Well, fine, but why should we pay tuitionfor that??"Indeed! Web-based learning is a perfect sort of thing to do during a periodof independent study. You can hang out on message boards or in chat rooms,learn how to use different search engines and familiarize yourself withreference resources, all for a low monthly flat fee (in most areas of theU.S.A., anyway). If you do this before going to college, then you willgive yourself enough time to get over the novelty of it, plus, when youstart college you will be able to concentrate on more traditional academicsubjects.With the Internet, we have an amazing potential for the interchange anddevelopment of socially progressive ideas. Anyone can find essays on iton any imaginable subject. We can share our ideas with the world. Criticalthinkers who are not part of any establishment can now find each other!Like other popular media, you do need to approach it on your own terms.The Internet can be addictive - it can absorb a great deal of thought andenergy. So your own needs and interests might best be served if you stayaway from it completely. Personal changeYou should consider issues of personal change during your period of independentstudy. Even if you are the kind of sensitive, intelligent, imaginativeperson who cares enough about social progress to read an essay like this,you might still have a few "personality issues" - habits, reactions, "neuroses,"difficulties and so on that you would like to change.There is hope! Change is possible! Every year, millions of humans changein truly significant, often easily observable ways. Compulsions and obsessionsdissipate, habitual reactions vanish, sadness melts in the sunlight, soreheads heal themselves, screwball ways of thinking are abandoned. Sometimesthe changes are spontaneous, sometimes they are in response to readingsor life experiences. Change can be facilitated by counseling, meditation,twelve-step programs, support groups, religious teachings or even medications.There can be problems. One might be a false conviction of change. Afterthe revival meeting, you're a new person, filled with the Holy Spirit.The next night, you're drunk on your ass again, whoring around in the worstparts of town! After the counseling session, you really understand yourself.The next night, you're back at the freeway rest stop, recklessly violatingthe terms of your parole! (Most instances of false conviction are notthat obvious.)Even a true change can lead you to give too much credit to a system ormethod that helped you achieve it - you could turn into just another evangelistfor your favorite brand of Ancient Celtic Wisdom, or whatever. (I do notmean to disparage A.C.W. If it interests you, then learn from it whatyou can!) Change can also lead to an overly "psychological" way of thinking,where most of your thoughts are about your thoughts, and your conversationstend to be about the little soap operas going on in the more sordid regionsof your noggin.Still, if you can change in some significant (but probably small)way and if you can maintain a critical perspective about your selfand all those things that aided your change, then you could be a valuablepart of an effort to build a new society. OriginalityWe think thoughts for ourselves, we learn thoughts originated by others.We learn much without realizing we are learning it. If you write essaysor keep a journal, you will probably find yourself writing down thoughtsvery similar to ones you've read. This is not a problem, as long as yourealize what is happening. We need to avoid illusions! Enlightened ordinarinessis better than benighted outlandishness!I don't claim to be particularly original. I've read a bit, I've thoughta lot, I've observed, I've accepted, rejected, reconsidered, elaboratedand reformulated many common ideas. This essay is worth reading becauseof the way I organize and present ideas, not because it contains ideasyou can't find anywhere else. If you wish to be a true critical thinker,you should develop the courage to be as ordinary as I am!Study GroupsBeing a true critical thinker has its liabilities. If you are a conformist,naturally, you pretend to be a "critical thinker" just to get along withall the other "critical thinkers" you work or socialize with, but it is notcomfortable being the real thing in a world of phonies.If you've studied the world as it is, you probably realize there is someserious weirdness going on, particularly in America. There are connectionsamong the outrageous conduct of public officials, the incredible stupiditiesuttered by university administrators, and the blatant propaganda spewedout by our presses under the heading of "news." I won't elaborate here.You need to develop your own sense of these things.At some point, you will ask yourself, "What can I do?" Keep that questionin mind for a while - you might be able to answer it!Myriad courses of action are possible. Most of them are not very dramatic.None are "effective" if you want to make a huge difference all at once.But if you, as a reformer or as a progressive, are concerned about thefuture, you should not stay isolated. If you really want to bea lonesome philosopher, go ahead, but honestly, it is not a fun way tolive.My recommendation: Form a study group!Some PossibilitiesPeople can form study groups for different reasons, some quite mundane.If you and five or six friends wanted to check out local service businesses- auto repair shops, dentists, carpet cleaners, etc. - you could form astudy group for that purpose. You could share your experiences, make listsof places to try, evaluate reports of especially good or bad service, lookfor patterns. For example, if everyone who goes to the local auto repairshop around the corner "needs new ball joints," then maybe it is not theplace to visit.Study groups can be set up for any interests people have in common, whetherit's the music of Nine Inch Nails or the novels of Jane Austin. My owninterest here is study groups set up to help analyze or reform aspectsof our existing society, or to lead to the development of alternative societies.Such groups are made up of small numbers of people who have made seriouscommitments to work together. They are neither debating clubs nor recruitmentmechanisms.A successful group requires consensus among its members on the issues ofthe group's purpose, membership, form and operation. Suppose we have fivepeople. If three of them want to study public housing and two of themwant to study literary references to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle,then they should form two groups. If persons B and C both hate personsD and E, and vice versa, then they should form two groups. (Person A couldbelong to either group, or possibly to both.) If four people want to meetinformally as time and inclination permit, but the fifth person insistson incorporating as a private club and conducting weekly meetings accordingto Robert's Rules of Order, then the fifth person should go looking forpeople with compatible personalities to form a second group.During your individual study phase, the emphasis was on critical thinking.With a group, the emphasis is on collaborative learning. The phrase "collaborativelearning" is popular in academia these days. I think it tends to be usedin inappropriate contexts. If you are taking a physics class from a goodprofessor, there is no particular need to get together on a regular basiswith classmates to work all of your homework exercises. The texts, thelab exercises, the lectures, etc., plus a phone call or two if you getstuck on something, will be enough to get you through. When uttered byuniversity administrators, "collaborative learning" might just be a codeword for creepy egalitarianism. Can't have anyone thinkin' they're smarter'n anyone else, now, can we? ('ceptin' us administraters, o' course...)The idea is still valid. Let us suppose five people at some college areinterested in various activist political groups on campus and how the localpapers cover them and related issues. The members could attend differentpublic meetings and lectures. Each person could read and clip a differentdaily newspaper. The group itself could meet once a week and pass clipsaround, talk about recent events and share ideas.The coverage for many events and issues will be the same in all the papers.The collaborative advantage is that you only have to read one source. The sharing and discussion will help fix the events in your mind, so yousave a lot of time.Then there are the nuggets. You have to wash out a lot of gravel beforeyou find them. Nuggets are those little pieces of information that casta new light on things, that suggest possible connections or motives, thattend to verify something you've suspected. The best nuggets are ones thattend to disprove things you've assumed. They will tax your critical thinkingskills! In the first place, many people can't even see such things. Somepeople automatically disregard them.The obvious point about nuggets is that you, as a member of a study groupwith four other good people, can learn about them without having to readevery single paper yourself. The real collaborative advantage goes beyondthat. How do you interpret those odd little contrary discoveries? A groupof five critical thinkers can come up with many more potential interpretationsthan one person working alone. Perhaps, after discussion, one interpretationwill seem right. Perhaps two or three will each suggest possible directionsfor further inquiry.Groups can look for curious similarities among the materials they gather.Suppose letters under three different names appear in three different papers,but each letter uses the exact phrase, "mad-dog capitalist pig imperialist."You could reasonably conclude that the letters were all written by thesame person or by people who know each other or by people who have somecommon organizational ties. That type of conclusion isn't exactly hold-the-pressesbreathtaking, but it is yet another little piece of informationthat will help group members form better understandings of what is goingon behind the scenes. Curious similarities can also suggest corporate hanky-panky. If, for example,many letters to editors of many newspapers get printed in defense of somebig corporation in legal trouble, and most of the letters make the samepoints, often with similar wordings, then you can suppose they are partof an organized PR campaign. Curious omissions can be significant. For example, if racial identitiesare always prominent parts of stories about white-on-black crimes, butare mentioned obscurely, or not at all, in stories about black-on-whitecrimes, you can presume some kind of deliberateness in the asymmetry.You can develop other categories of oddity to aid you in your analysis.Groups don't need to have an investigatory focus. You might want to concentrateon reviewing books and other writings concerning, just for example, thehistory of intentional communities. Members could give oral book reportsat meetings. Some of the more interesting materials could go on a commonreading list.Governance should not be too much of an issue for a small study group,but it might not be possible or desirable to avoid the subject completely.Some sort of participatory democracy or consensus decision making arrangementwould work best in most cases. On the other hand, if the group has oneor two members who are dominant (because they started the group, or theyput much more effort into it than others), then some formal or informalrecognition of their leadership might be appropriate. Regardless of thegroup's internal form, getting along with other people and working wellwith other people always take time and effort. It won't always be obviousto you exactly what it is you're learning. If you read the papers carefully,looking for oddities and thinking critically about it all, you're "obviously"learning about the topic at hand (say, "the battle over gun control"),but, more importantly, you're learning to study media content carefullyand critically. Similarly, some of the lessons you learn while playingyour part to develop a functioning study group and keep it functioningwill be useful if you move on to forms of association that require greaterlevels of commitment.Associations of study groups are a possibility. They could be complex,for example, 25 people could establish two sets of study groups, one setbased on media type (newspapers, magazines, web sites, books and publicmeetings and lectures) and the other set based on subject (health care,labor relations, banking regulations, environmental protection and highereducation). Each person would belong to one group in each set. Each groupwould have a representative from each group in the other set. E.g., thelabor relations study group would have a representative from the newspapersgroup, one from the magazine group, and so on.Inevitably, some groups will split up. If this is a simple failure toget along, then about all you can do is learn from the experience. Whatwent wrong? Try not to dwell on any sore-headedness you might feel. Useyour critical thinking skills!!A split-up precipitated by philosophical differences or truly incompatiblepersonality types can be a good thing. Suppose four reactionaries andfour left-wingers make up an anti-war study group. Oh, it would warm myheart to see all those people getting along!! But maybe they can't. Yearsand years of political hostilities leave their traces. Even when we getover being sore, the former sore spots are easily inflamed. So, in orderto avoid wasting time by getting tangled up in ideological differences,the reactionaries and the left-wingers might best split up into two groups,each of which could make better progress on its own.In some cases, small groups can combine into larger groups, or form complexassociations. There are many possibilities.Being part of a study group is a form of political engagement that doesnot require you to act on issues you don't understand. Still, a groupmay decide that "action" is appropriate in some situations. The actionmight be a simple, loosely coordinated letter writing campaign, or it mightbe a long project to establish a formal student organization or politicalaction committee. Again, many possibilities. Groups are free to avoid"action" entirely, if that is their wish.Perhaps even more important than knowledge and habits of thought are thepersonal relationships developed in a study group. No matter what directionsyour life eventually takes, you will know people with whom you can candidlydiscuss serious issues. If times ever demand a high level of engagementwith our current society, or serious efforts to withdraw from it, you willknow people you can work with.In any case, your critical thinking skills, your familiarity with processesof collaborative learning and your ability to have serious discussionsand still get along with people will all prepare you for closer forms ofassociation.Cooperative Living ArrangementsCooperative living arrangements have practical advantages. By poolingresources and sharing work and expenses, you can live an economical, low-overheadlife and enjoy the company of the people you are living with. You canlearn a few things about working with people and getting along that youmight not learn in the somewhat authoritarian environment of a workplaceor in the somewhat anarchistic environment of a college dormitory.Practical ArrangementsIf your motives are purely practical, then your best bet is to join anexisting arrangement. Do the people in the house seem to get along? Isthe place reasonably clean? What kind of reputation does the place have?Do the members sit around all day smoking weed, do they have drunken partieson the weekends, are they devoted to lives of chastity and abstinence,are they all business majors?You have to start with some reasonable belief that you will be happy inparticular group, but once you join up, you must be willing to adjust toits established ways. The wheels of local culture and procedure do notneed to be re-invented.Project oriented arrangementsA group of people with a common purpose might consider a cooperative livingarrangement as a way of furthering that purpose. A study group, for example,might wish to move to a higher level of commitment in order to cover morematerial.In these cases, the arrangement probably needs to be established from theground up, since existing arrangements and communities might not be suitablefor the purpose at hand. You are not "re-inventing" wheels; you are adaptingthe concept of wheel to your particular vehicle.The adventure will involve risks. People might not get along, they mightnot be happy, the group could completely fall apart under the added pressure.The distances between members of a study group who live separately havea stabilizing influence. When those distances vanish, the charming quirkcan become a major annoyance. The major annoyance can become an intolerableburden.Material ProjectsThe project could have a business or technical orientation. An abilityto live together cheaply, pooling resources and knowledge, and work welltogether can sometimes give a small group better prospects for successthan gobs of venture capital. A group of people actually living togetheris much better able to cultivate high levels of commitment and trust thana mere "network" of loosely connected individuals.Artistic projects could also be approached this way. One lonesome teenager,even with rich parents, would have trouble producing a weekly TV show.However, a group of five people in their early twenties, who have preparedthemselves by studying individually and together, and who have gotten toknow each other well by living together, might have a chance of creatingan engaging drama that would actually attract a loyal audience. The inevitabledifficulties in adjusting to a group living situation would provide manycomic and dramatic ideas for episodes. Who knows - the results might evenbe better than the early seasons of Dawson's Creek.Reformist ArrangementsSome groups might be interested in social reform efforts. Our existingsociety is screwball in so many ways, there are many possibilities. Onewould be to focus on large politically active organizations such as theACLU or the National Education Association. Their internal politics arecomplex and obscure. The perverse nature of their external political activitiesis easier to learn about. The ACLU does indeed do some fine civil libertieswork, and I hope they continue. But they also spend considerable energyon left-wing political initiatives and on attacking conservative politicsin ways that have essentially nothing to do with "civil liberties." Aworthy objective for a reform-oriented group would be reform of the ACLUitself. Or the NEA.Helping the poor and needy is a worthy purpose. Our institutional mechanismsfor providing such help often fail, because they end up serving their paidhelp much more than the needs they were put in place to address. Therewill always be room for involvement by independent monitors and activistsin areas such as care for the very old, for the mentally ill, the homeless.A group of people living cooperatively and engaged in issues of this typewould resemble the Students for a Democratic Society in the earlier phasesof its existence, before it (and just about everyone else) went totallynuts later in the '60s.Reform groups could concentrate on esoteric issues, such as foreign policy,which is an arena for conflicts by all kinds of interests, some obvious,some obscure. Just about everything you might read about internationalrelations is tainted by some kind of material or ideological agenda, andit is not easy to tell which is which. Any existing institutions for formalstudy of foreign affairs are likely to be similarly tainted. Groups ofdedicated citizens would be able to make small differences, as opposedto the essentially negligible differences that would result from purelyindividual efforts. An interesting possibility would be to establish somekinds of on-going contact with similar groups in foreign countries. Forexample, five people in the U.S.A. and another group of five people inGuatemala might accomplish a great deal of learning about the history ofthat country and about foreign involvement by communists as well as Yankeeimperialists. If Guatemala ever became a serious issue in the U.S., therewould be at least five people who would have a chance of finding theirway out of the inevitable maelstrom of obfuscation.Values, Ideals and PurposesPeople living cooperatively need to have something in the way of sharedvalues, ideals and purposes. (VIPs for short - very easy to remember!)Organizational form and operational details should be consistent with theVIPs.Here is a quirky example of shared VIPs at work. Normally, getting along,keeping interpersonal difficulties down to a minimum would be a "sharedvalue." However, suppose five budding writers live together hoping toenhance their individual levels of creativity. Perhaps constant discord,ever shifting bi-ual relationship triangles and frequent outbreaks ofunrestrained artistic jealousy would stimulate that creativity much morethan the kind of relative tranquility most of us would be comfortable with.(My own preference for a literary co-op would be a spirit of internal unityagainst the crazy, crazy world outside, but that's just me.)DogmaDogmas are like the undefined terms and axioms of a mathematical system.They are the fundamental ideas upon which ways of thought and reasoningare built. They have a large effect on the nature of a group or a society.They can be kept to a minimum, but they cannot be completely avoided. A group's dogmas would consist of its VIPs and any other "truths" it wishesto uphold. Of course, if you have too much dogma or not enough or thewrong kind or a bad combination, then your group will fail. "Diversity" is a dogma now popular in government, academia and large business.Sometimes the worthy goal is likeness, not differentness. Universitiesnow seem to construe their reason for existence as the providing of objectlessons for students whose pre-academic lives took place solely in thecompany of people "just like themselves." I suspect, if you are seriouslythinking about "new societies," then you are like me in some ways. Youlong to live in a situation where you can for once in your lifetalk and work with people who are "just like you" in someessential way. You do not need to be ashamed of that longing!HousekeepingYou will have to deal with some issues that are even more treacherous thandogma or inter-personal psychology. For example, housekeeping! It isour legacy of male chauvinism that leads us to think of housekeeping asa trivial issue. It isn't! Where do people keep their dirty laundry?Do you need "rules" for use of the washer and dryer? Who cooks, who doesthe dishes? How often should the floors get swept? Are tasks rotated,or do you have permanent assignments? Do you need house rules? Quiethours? Rules about guests, drinking, smoking? Who manages the finances?How formal is the organization? Is their a house president or chairperson?Who can sign checks?Sooner or later, someone will say, with great conviction, "My god, we areSUPPOSED to be (helping the poor, learning about Bosnia, preparing to runBill Gates out of business or whatever), and here we are SQUABBLING aboutwho does the flippin' dishes!!" You should calmly respond, "It is writtenin Manifesto for the Peoples of the Third Millennium that housekeepingissues are indeed worthy of our time." That should settle the matter onceand for all.Organization and OperationThere are other operational and organizational issues you will need toaddress. It might become desirable to expel people who can't seem to getalong. It's a situation that needs to be handled with intelligence andsensitivity, but it is not always avoidable. We can learn from the misfitsamong us, but perhaps there are things we can best learn when we are notbeing distracted by misfits. Here is where having a stable organizationstructure and decision making process is highly beneficial. An unpleasantadjustment does not need to become a major crisis.Your ultimate achievements as part of a successful cooperative living arrangementwill be greater than your project work. The close friendships you formand the lessons you learn might very well last a lifetime.Intentional CommunitiesThe kind of cooperative living arrangements I've described are sometimescalled "intentional communities." I use the word to describe somethingmore permanent, something a cooperative living arrangement could evolveinto. A CLA might involve six people leasing a house together. An ICmight involve thirty people collectively buying 160 acres of land, buildingsix houses on it and cooperatively farming it. The fact that propertyand quite possibly decades of people's lives are involved makes an IC amuch more ambitious project. The personal consequences for failure canbe serious. If you join an IC at age 25, with great energy, enthusiasm,commitment and hope, and leave at age 40, what will you have for all ofyour effort? Knowledge is imperfect. We humans are quite capable of makinghuge mistakes with our lives. Two years "wasted" as part of a CLA wouldnot necessarily be wasted. Twenty years "wasted" in an IC might be trulywasted, and it might be difficult for you to make a decent life for yourselfin the great world outside. "If things don't work out, we'll all go ourown ways when the lease expires" is correct thinking for a CLA. If youare considering establishing or joining an IC, the details of what wouldbe involved if you leave or if the whole group fails are very important.That is one of the factors that makes "cults" so dangerous. It isn't thestrangeness of their beliefs, it's the fact that they demand huge amountsof effort and devotion, and, after six months or so, they deliver to theirmembers no more enlightenment than what can be found in the self-help sectionof your favorite bookstore. Another aspect of cultism is the suppressionof critical thought. Even to ask the question, "What if I decide I don'treally like this, what if I want to leave?" is to commit an act of grossinfidelity.Mainstream religions and secular ideologies also tend to suppress criticalthought, but they also encourage their adherents to live normal prosperouslives.I mention cultism at the start here because it is a serious danger. Ifyou become part of a true intentional community, then it might very wellinvolve foundational dogmas at odds with "mainstream" society. This variancemight instill a messianic attitude, which might not be bad in itself, butit might lead you to be overly committed to the variant ideas or especiallyto community founders who initially expounded those ideas. Thus, you couldinvest a large segment of your life enriching and pleasing a leadership,but without getting much in return. Simply believing that you're doingsomething of some benefit to humanity isn't a bad thing. If our presentorder is corrupt, and I believe it is, then efforts to develop alternativesto it are noble even when they fail. But I sincerely encourage you tomaintain your sense of critical thinking that you started developing duringyour phase of individual study. I encourage you not to let your altruisticimpulses get out of hand.As with the simpler collaborative living arrangements, the VIPs of an intentionalcommunity do not have to be explicitly progressive. Perhaps twenty peoplewould value peace and quiet, a good night's sleep every night, good food,comradeship, energetic work and time for studying and developing theirartistic and athletic talents. If they've all followed the progressionfrom individual study to group study to group living, they might have areal chance of putting together their own little utopia. It would be avery progressive accomplishment, even if the community members were nottrying to be progressive.Gigantism-IndividualismThe over-arching spirit of our age is what I call gigantism-individualism.They are like the good guys/bad guys in a professional wrestling match:their "opposition" is a form of engaging the audience, of enhancing boxoffice revenues. We root for one side or the other, not realizing thatthe opponents are really on the same side. Politically, we see Jesse Ventura,a charismatic libertarian type, happily posing for a photo with Bill Clinton,the anointed servant of the powers behind gigantic entities such as theU.S.A., NATO, the National Education Association, numerous large commercialinterests and the United Nations.We suffer from a great poverty of thought. So-called "liberals" go onand on about "community" or even "morality" when it suits some particularpoint they wish to make. In other contexts, they will strike dramaticpostures for the sake of "individual rights."Conservatives might note the erosion of the powers of intermediateinstitutions - state governments, private organizations, small and mediumsized business, neighborhoods and families - but the idea of creatingnew intermediate structures never occurs to them. Also, mainstreamconservative types tend to ignore the erosiveness of capitalism itself.Plus, they have a tendency to play "bad cop" in ways that actually strengthenfederal authority. The liberal/conservative power struggles are real,but as with professional wrestling matches, the "opponents" are in somesignificant ways actually on the same side.Any intentional community is an alternative to gigantism-individualism.They are obviously not gigantic, and they would almost always involve someabnegation of the pure individualism we are supposed to cherish. If makingup your own little personal mind on every issue in your life from preferredtype of grocery bag to when and how loud you can play your stereo to whetheror not to abort a late-term fetus is the one thing you value most, thenyou are probably quite happy living in the world as it is, with all ofits noise and traffic jams, endless shopping malls, music that deafensits listeners, war criminals in high office in the United States, power-worshipingjournalists, Wal-Marts sprouting up where once only weeds grew, mindlessaction-adventure films, fast food served ineptly by grinning idiots, fineart that sucks, publicly funded arenas for the rich spoiled brats of professionalsports, racial strife constantly fueled by those claiming to oppose it,cavalier yahoos in sport utility vehicles, rude police officers and numerous,numerous opportunities to support the power structure and show that youreally care. Put a check mark in one or two boxes on your tax return!Your "individual rights" are safe! (For the next decade or two, I wouldguess.) You need to know what you value, and if that's it, then that'swhat you have. It will never, never occur to you that maybe life couldbe better.People who do see possibilities of achieving better lives through moderatelyscaled collective action are true progressives, whether they know it ornot. If what you want out of collective action is more time to play baseball,instead of just watching it on TV, then may God bless you with many homeruns and a happy life!Example: John Galt in ParadiseThe gathering of industrialist-intellectual-individualists in Ayn Rand'snovel Atlas Shrugged is a fictional example of an intentional community.(John Galt is a character in Rand's novel.) I doubt that a community basedon her philosophical ideas could work in the real world. The dynamicsof the actual group of people who hung out with her while she was writingher great work were perhaps at odds with the ideals expressed in it. Still,if a group of people adhering to Randian VIPs ever do try to set up a functioningintentional community, that shouldn't be much of a problem for the restof us.It isn't surprising that theoretical doctrines of individualism can leadto authoritarianism in practice. Similarly, a rigid insistence on logicalconsistency can hamper our ability to think critically. Abhorrence ofsocial classes gives birth to social classes. Rejection of dogma becomesdogma. We do not find love until we stop looking for it. Etc., etc.It is not a rejection of reason to note these "paradoxes." Our relationshipswith other people, our ideas, our attitudes and our feelings all affecteach other. Formal logic is a good model for things like the workingsof a digital computer. We should not expect it to be a perfect tool forunderstanding life and society and everything.There is a well known college that calls itself a "laboratory of democracy."(The students, I presume, are the rats!) An intentional community shouldavoid that kind of pretense. It is similar to the situation we face withourselves. There are all kinds of theories and systems and methods forpersonal change. Many claim to be "scientific." But science fails whenthe issue is your own thoughts, your own feelings, your own life. Becauseif you are at Point A in your life, and you try Method Q, you can't goback to Point A and try Method R and then compare results and draw a conclusion.You are the very river into which you cannot step twice. At best, ourself knowledge is developed by reasonable guesses based on experience.So it is with intentional communities and even societies. We regard somethings as "bad" (authority, dogma, social classes, exclusion, selfishness,elites, censorship) and some things as "good" (democracy, equality, freedom,idealism, logic, altruism). Our reactions to these concepts, our opinionsabout them tend to be shaped by society and by what we read. And in thissociety, not surprisingly, they function more as "buttons" than as actual,operational principles. They are flags around which much righteous rabblecan be roused to rally. My opinion is, if you are participating in anintentional community, and you have some hope that your community couldbe the beginning of a new society, you will need some amount ofsome kind of authority, dogma, etc., etc. You will need to avoid elevatingconcepts like democracy, equality or even idealism itself to the statusof unassailable ideals.What you can hope to achieve is an actual working instance of small-scalesocial organization. Even if all is well with your group, you still needto think critically about issues of scale. There are forms of "participatorydemocracy" that can work very well for a group of five or six people, butthat break down completely when the group has more than a dozen members.Example: The Neo-Folk SeptetIf you make enough money doing what you love to do you can live the kindof life you want to live. Sometimes we are not good enough at our preferredoccupations to support ourselves from them. There are many wealthy musiciansin the world, but there is much competition for that wealth. The marketsfor some kinds of work are weak. Almost no one, for example, makes a livingby writing poetry.Sometimes it is possible to accomplish things through small-scale collectiveaction that otherwise would be possible only with substantial personalresources. In this fictitious example, a circle of folk music lovers haveformed an intentional community which they call the Neo-Folk Septet. Theyare not rich, but they have solved the difficult problem of learning tolive economically with each other and get along on terms that allow allof them to continue pursuing their artistic and cultural interests.Suppose our NFS makes a few recordings and builds up a small group of fans.Word gets around. The "community thing" appeals to people, perhaps evenmore than the actual music. Other people want to join, or start similarcommunities. Thus, there is potential for expanding the community or beginninga movement.It would be more like a folk movement than a pop movement. A pop movementis like pop music - it's success is based on it's appeal to common sentimentalitiesand emotional reactions. I happen to like a lot of pop music forthat reason. Some of the songs by *NSync, The Backstreet Boys, BritneySpears and the Spice Girls are pleasant and pretty and they don't needto be anything more than that.Pop progressivism is dangerous. The popular appeal of social ideas haslittle to do with their workability. In one of John Lennon's songs, thereis the line, "Imagine all the people living for today." It sounds so nice!And it is indeed a very pretty song. But I suspect a world where all peoplereally were "living for today" would be back in the stone age in a decadeor two, if not sooner. Our imaginations can lead us in many directions,not all of which are forward.A successful neo-folk culture would have its roots in interactions of personalities,ideas, events and emotional resonances. It would have narratives, shibboleths,favorite songs and other common references that would embody its accumulatedknowledge and maintain a sense of group identity. According to my thinking,a neo-folk culture would also involve some amount of formal dogma.But if culture is like a song, then the tunes, the harmonies, the interplaysof different voices, the colors and textures are more important than thesemantic content of the words.The FutureThe root meaning of the word "perfect" is "completely done or finished."Our lives, our families, our associations, our societies, our species arealways changing one way or another. We would not want them to be "perfect."The Constitution of the United States of America was not regarded by itswriters as a perfect document. It included mechanisms by which it couldbe changed. It also included many elements supporting a high degree ofstability.So it should be with groups. Neither adamant rigidity nor unrestrainedradicalism are of much practical use. Even changes in fundamental dogmascould be contemplated for good reason. New GenerationsA community that desires generational continuity should develop its ownmethods, styles, practices, traditions and institutions for the educationof children.The general pleasantness and security of life in "advanced" nations dependson a great deal of technical knowledge. A sound general education in allthe usual subjects - history, language, arithmetic, algebra, geography,biology, health, sports, art, etc., etc. - is a foundation for the gainingof that knowledge. Practical skills such as cooking, house building, repairof machinery, agriculture, road construction, forestry, computer programmingand so on should also be taught.A community should improve over generations. We should not fall into theerror of worshiping youth, but we should reasonably be able to hope thatour children will grow up to be at least slightly better people than weare. At the same time, we must transmit not only static knowledge of ourculture, but the ways of thinking and conversation and working togetherthat have enabled us to be truly progressive.Thus, education will always involve some tension between progressive andconservative tendencies, but if we believe we have arrived at some convivial,pleasant, earth-friendly way of collective living, presumably we wouldwant our children to have the opportunity to enjoy what we have established.We can be proud of ourselves if they follow in our footsteps, more or less,up to a point, etc., because the outside world will often seem like anattractive alternative even when it isn't, especially to those who lacka first-hand knowledge of its problems.The most fundamental political skills that need to be taught in an alternativesociety are a willingness to study public issues and to reflect upon themcritically and to discuss them honestly with other community members. The exact mechanisms for representation, decision making, etc., will varyfrom group to group, but a society can not possibly be progressive if appealto mass emotion "works" most of the time, while thoughtful reflection andhonest discussion almost never make any difference at all.The studies, reflections and discussions must be in the context of thecommunity itself. Thus, if youth are eventually to take their places asfull contributing members of the community, they need to learn the historyand traditions of the community. They need to understand its foundationalvalues and dogmas. They need to hear its stories and to read its basictexts. Ungrounded idealism and cheap universalism should be discouraged.New SocietiesIf study groups, intentional communities and purpose-oriented cooperativeliving arrangements keep increasing in number over enough decades, theywould actually be a "political movement" but not the kind we are familiarwith. Successful groups will provide inspirational examples for unaffiliatedpeople. Some successful groups will decide to grow and will develop workableways of selecting and assimilating new people. When significant numbersof people change the ways they live, that, of course, affects the largersocieties they are part of.Some individual groups will "reproduce" by fission or schism. Some factionswill succeed, some will fail. Some groups will be imitated, i.e., formedby people who learned community ways from books, articles and culturalproducts such as songs and TV dramas, but who never actually lived in thecommunities they are imitating. An imitation is more likely to fail thanan effort "organically" developed as described in this essay. I believeit is impossible to use any medium to convey all the details of a way oflife. The "unconveyed" details could be significant. However, the inherentinexactness of attempted replication could yield variant communities superiorin some ways to the original models.Some communities will combine or form associations. All of the splittings,accretions, spontaneous generations, unions and connections, successesand failures will, over time, give adaptability and strength to the movementas a whole. Groups will develop ways of cooperating with other groups,just as they develop ways of getting along internally and ways of assimilatingnew people.A community should postpone serious thought about the issue of autonomyuntil a generation of people born in it has reached middle age. If manycommunities with positive public images in the outside world have sproutedup, developed and become established, then autonomy might be a real possibility,although the achievement of it might take decades. In the mean time, livingunder the discipline of a functioning large political entity such as theUnited States of America would have advantages. "Instant autonomy," evenif it were politically possible, might lead to too many "Lord of the Flies"type situations. "Here we are - masters of our fate!! So, what do wedo next??"The re-organization of people into small scale associations will benefitthe larger societies they are part of. Their independence of view, theseriousness of their studies, their experiences with discussion and criticalthinking will enhance the quality of political and social debate. Someself-established groups will have the energy, the integrity, the intellectualpower, the cohesiveness and the endurability necessary to peacefully andeffectively challenge and reform the gigantic institutions of our age.As the number of communities and associations and autonomous entities increases,aggregations will emerge that will include enough people, enough land,enough tradition, enough knowledge to be regarded as actual new societies.The members of new societies will eventually think of themselves as newpeoples.HumanityIn his book Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote, "Ye have madeyour way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm." Moderngenetic science can tell us exactly how much within us is "still worm."You can probably find this information somewhere on the Internet.Unlike the great atheistic prophet, I believe that even if we "surpass"much of our "human, all too human" weirdness, we will still wish to remainhuman. Machines might pass a Turing test someday, but they will neverenjoy reading Nietzsche. The worminess of our biological bodies will bewith us, lo, unto eternity!Collectively, we have made our way from the stone age to our present transitionalage. Much within us longs for the closeness of the hunter-gatherer societiesof our distant foreparents.The good gentlepersons at the upper levels of our world power structureappeal to our residual primitive consciousness by crying, "Community!!Community!!" By which they mean we should subordinate the interests ofourselves, our families and our frail associations to the interests ofthe gigantic forces they so effectively control.The masters of public opinion and mass behavior have scientifically mappedthe resonances of our souls. They vibrate the strings of our hearts withdigital music. They have at their disposal precise statistical profilesof our needs for feelings of love and tenderness. We have not evolvedto the point where we can naturally withstand these assaults on our humanity.The slow development of authentic folk cultures is impossible in our age.The only alternative I see to the gigantism and atomization and the sheerrapidity of change that prevent such development is the deliberate cultivationof synthetic folk-like cultures.Humanity's assault on the ecology of earth was well underway at the dawnof the Neolithic age. Our mastery of nature could be our doom. And yetwe cannot abandon technology. We must reconcile the strange, infinitelyarguable insights and achievements of 20th Century thought with the wisdomof the ages, even the pre-historical ages. We must also be willing torecognize the stupidities of ages past and of our own age.New societies of reasonable size and evolved structure can best fulfillour ancient, rooted longings for connection, companionship and conviviality.Progressive communities have been created. In my humble opinion, the futureof humanity depends on the continuation of that creative process.Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2003 If you wish to link to this article, try copying and pasting:<a href="http://m3peeps.org/manif.htm">Manifesto for the Peoples of the Third Millennium</a>[Go to m3peeps.org home page] |
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