There
are a lot of items on my Sunday list of subjects I said I would write
about soon. But none seems as important right now as what I wrote about
yesterday -- my quest to employ Second Life as a testing ground to
create a working model of Intentional Community. This is one of the
things I want to leave for future generations to consider as they
rebuild society after civilization's collapse. It's also something we
need desperately in the Real World today -- a better way to live and
make a living than the dysfunctional systems that we struggle with
today.
What is strange to me is that I no longer feel inclined
to create an Intentional Community in Real Life. I'm trying to figure
out why, since I'm not by nature an escapist, nor am I generally much
enamoured of technology. Here are the reasons I've come up with:
- The
constraints to creating Intentional Community in Real Life are severe.
People have family responsibilities, work responsibilities, economic
responsibilities, that they can't just walk away from. Until a support
network of Intentional Communities can be established, it will be a
struggle to find (and pay for) the right place, to self-organize, and
to extract ourselves from responsibilities and commitments. The people
I've spoken to about Intentional Community have more or less said to
me: "Dave, great idea, ask me again in about ten years." At various
times I've been invited by three different people to meet to explore
creating an Intentional Community with them, and I've balked -- it's
just such a big step. What if it doesn't work out? The history of
Intentional Community Success in Real Life is not great, and fear of
failure is very human. In Second Life, by contrast, the cost of failure
(other than disappointment and heartbreak, which is a very real cost)
is very small.
- Even if we can't find the people we want to make
community with in Second Life today, we can always invite the people we
know in Real Life to join Second Life and our Intentional Community.
This is a low-risk way to figure out whether, in Real Life, they'd be
the right people to make community with as well, and this would allow
us to 'pre-populate' the community with an exceptional group of people.
What do we have to lose?
- Some readers comments on yesterday's
post have me wondering whether my 11 essential qualities of an
Intentional Community member are too stringent, and an experiment in
Second Life would be a good test of this.
- In a very short
period of time I've grown to love several people I've met in Second
Life. My instincts tell me that for those relationships to grow, we
need a purpose, one that is not connected to Real Life. So what can
that purpose be? It's fun, and heart-warming, to meet new people and do
silly things with them, and to help them deal with some of their
problems (as they help you with yours). But then what? We need to do
something other than replicate the patterns and behaviours that we face
in Real Life, with the same jealousies and possessiveness and
materialistic pursuits that plague us in our Real Lives. We need an
alternative that is not subject to the grim constraints of contemporary
Real Life, with all the emotional pain that so often accompanies the
emotional joy of finding people to befriend and love in a brave new
world. My instincts tell me that a polyamory Intentional Community,
completely divorced from Real Life, is such an alternative.
More
on this strange and exciting quest as it unfolds. Thanks to all the
readers who have offered their encouragement and constructive
criticism. Just when I thought the astonishing pace of my self-learning
and self-change was slowing down, I am finding that every day brings
new discoveries that force me to re-evaluate everything that I believe.
All I know is that I'm happier than I have ever been, and relearning
how important love is to everything we do, and to the future of our
world.
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
