Communes.

2002-07-03 - 12:48 a.m.

So, talking with the new psuedo-friend on the bus back from Ottawa, we briefly touched on how to make a better world.

He holds hope only in creating a seperate state, one free to be ruled as we anti-corporate types see fit. A commune, of sorts.

This was a point during our otherwise engaging conversation where I felt I must take a step back.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to retreat from "normal" society, and nothing wrong with wanting to live and spend time with people who agree with you. Communes, or communities, or Co-Ops are good things...they can provide a sense of kinship that isn't really present in a lot of cities, and is becoming scarcer (new word!) across the world as we become more xenophobic, more consumeristic, more capitalistic (which, as I've mentioned, is a system that encourages -selfishness- and discourages community and altruism or charity).

The problem is when this desire is seen as an acceptable end for activism. For one thing, it doesn't help anyone who doesn't agree with you, and one thing I'm not for is yet another hierarchy of ideologies. I'm fighting for everyone to have a fair shake, a right to justice, whether I agree with them or not.

Also, a commune doesn't do anything to prevent much larger groups from abusing the rest of the world. You aren't helping the environment by stepping aside. You aren't helping Columbia by going off into the woods.

And finally, a commune with the goal of establishing a new order is ripe for a Jonestown incident...like it or not, we are social creatures, and at least for some things we need the rest of society for feedback. It gets tough to keep a grip on reality if everyone around you is trying to convince you (and themselves) that aliens have landed, that Jesus is Risen in that charismatic dude who's always talking, that Elvis is alive...

So there.

The Magus

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