We’ve had a student group from Berea College here for the past 2 days. It’s a group of 19 students and 2 professors, from a class focused on studying intentional communities. The students have been helping out with some work — onion peeling, cow herding, dinner cooking, calf feeding — and hanging out around the community and getting a sense of how we live here. Some of them seem really interested, others seem too “cool” to enjoy it. For the most part, it’s fun having them here. I love sharing this way of living with people, watching them open to new ways of doing things (like not flushing toilets after every pee — or peeing outside, for goodness sake!). On their first night here, I sat with them and talked about my journey to this place, sharing with them my conviction that collaborative living is possible and vitally necessary, and reminding myself at the same time.
A large group of Oakers are preparing to head up to the inauguration tomorrow. My personal theme is “inaugurate yourself!”. I’m going with the intention of celebrating the idea of self-governance and claiming responsibility for creating the reality I want, instead of complaining that other people (especially those who make up the current American government) aren’t going to do it. It’s not just George Bush, but the entire system, that’s out of whack. And so I’m going to the protests to invite people to find a way of living that’s not (as) dependent on the system. This isn’t recruiting for the commune or anything like that — it’s wanting to inspire folks to consider the possibility of a radically different way of living, whatever that may be. Off I go, with my dancing clothes on…
Rev Kate Adamson 
I never flushed when it was only pee. “If it’s yellow, mellow…brown, down.” It did piss off my one brother all the time, though. He was so anal. The puns are just flowing, aren’t they?
Have a good time at the inauguration. I’d be out finding an alternative lifestyle if I could find myself underneath all this snow.
I llove your self-inauguration idea. Your whole take on the universe is wonderful and I thank you for sharing it =)
Also: just saw this cartoon and thought of Twin Oaks immediately:
http://www.comics.com/comics/chickweed/archive/chickweed-20050120.html
(Note: link is only valid for two weeks. Such is life.)
*love*
ken
Why would you want to be anywhere near a protest where the dominant emotional tone is screaming, incoherent rage? Why do you think your message would resonate with those kinds of people?
The people at yesterday’s protest weren’t just angry at President Bush; they were angry at the American people for being allowed to choose a leader they don’t approve of. Yesterday’s protest was a protest against representative government itself.
Do you then oppose representative government?
What IS it with these ‘unlogged visitors’? PLEASE, people, identify yourselves.
It’s Patch, and I am clearly grouchy. The protests are not against ‘representative government’ necessarily; they’re against this asswad. They’re against the curtailment of liberte, fraternite, egalite, at the top of my own list of grievances. Whatever my perception of democracy (and that is that democracy as a reality is a myth), I have yet to see a system less corrupt. It’s got a virus, to be sure, but my main problem with anarchists is that the alternative system of governance, universally applied, isn’t proffered (I’ve argued with TS, Pax, and others about this on here before, which is great). Basically, the post 9/11 America is growing persistently uglier, in my eyes. Lisa Anderson wrote a wonderful review in Nov 2001 about the ‘ambivalence of liberalism’ which creeped in after the attacks. What kind of America, exactly, do its leaders seek to defend? I don’t like Bush’s vision, and so – were I not stranded in Texas, I’d be joining – I raise my voice in dissent, one of the greatest remaining gifts of liberalism (not the political affiliation, but the intellectual movement).
“they were angry at the American people for being allowed to choose a leader they don’t approve of.”
An interesting perspective, and I disagree. %50.8 is the vote that was recorded, and even if I believed that number to be an accurate representation of how people voted (I don’t), a miniscule majority doesn’t indicate a clear will of the people to be governed by him. There is a clear division in this country, and %0.8 doesn’t bestow a mandate on anyone.
AND the idea that the American people really “chose” anything is a sweet ideal. It doesn’t acknowledge the manipulation of information and billions of dollars spent on advertising by both parties. It wasn’t an election, it was a beauty pageant.
>It wasn’t an election, it was a beauty pageant.
Are you saying that you, if you had your way, would impose your own choice accordingly?
uh, no. I’m saying that the current method for selecting a president (and other governmental leaders, for that matter) isn’t a process of people learning about the candiates and their viewpoints and their abilities — it’s an advertising campaign.
>I’m saying that the current method for selecting a president [i]sn’t a process of people learning about the candiates (sic) and their viewpoints and their abilities — it’s an advertising campaign.
If I choose to inform others of my position and credentials through advertising, how is that bad?
There are several problems with advertising. Most especially, a 30-second ad is a completely inadequate forum for conducting meaningful or nuanced discussion. The level of sophistication available in an ad is so minimal as to be pretty worthless in helping people understand positions. Plus, TV ads tend to be fairly content-free and emotion-heavy, which makes it even less worthwhile as a form of communicating on complicated issues.