The essence of “our movement”
There is increasing resonance for our movement. On some level people have some sense that important requisites for a good quality of life are lacking. Too many aspects of our present social reality and current modes of living are felt to be unsatisfactory.
I don’t think the essence of the problems and the solutions is yet well understood. But I do notice more and more articles and expressions along the lines of the one I cited yesterday:
The themes there are: A better way of life. Less isolation. More relating. More support.
Most of the people who gravitate toward those co-living and cohousing and other communitarian initiatives are just seeking a better quality of life, and that’s surely understandable. But for some there’s a social change aspect, a sense of being part of a movement.
It’s a movement for a restoration of sane lifeways.
Erich Fromm:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40717990-the-sane-society
Social changers should recognize that we’re not just struggling against injustice, against capitalism. Most of what the left critiques should be seen as symptomatic. The roots of the problems go deeper.
The aberrant turn toward modern society drove humanity a little crazy. The symptoms are: alienation from nature, militarism, inequality, patriarchy, hyper-exploitation, mass commercialism, leviathan-scale institutions and technologies. And the need is not for some new system. The need is for restoration. To get back to lifeways that are sustainable and as satisfying as human lifeways are able to be (there’s no nirvana … the unique human characteristic called ‘consciousness’ subjects us all to idiosyncratic psychological and social issues).
Our movement should put forward a positive vision: restoration of ecological balances; rejuvenation of local community life. Such could elicit majority support.
The movement’s banner could simply read: Ecology and Community
