Can you imagine? Living in an intentional and self-sustaining community that reflects "values of cooperation, sharing, nonviolence, equality, and ecology?"
Check out this lovely community. Twin Oaks. In the business of creating a quality enriched life since 1967! http://www.twinoaks.org/
I came across their website wayyyy back in 2003, when I (as many of us did) foresaw the current state of affairs encroaching upon our shining sea shores.
Thing is, what we see today is simply a precursor to the really, really bad stuff that now seems a certainty to materialize. US as a 3rd world debtors nation. Totalitarianism in the extreme. Death squads for dissenters. Religious fanatics used as brown shirts. All I can say is (and I say this a lot!) is I am damn glad I didn't have children. Damn glad about it. This is sick, but I see these post-partum depression-afflicted moms kill their kids and it actually enters my mind, "well, at least those kids don't have to endure what America is to become." Sick. I know.
I used to envision
Utopia as this other-worldly place perched up on a mountain top enveloped by big billowy clouds with a balmy air and tropical temperatures and nectar flowing from the streams and exotic fruits galore. Much like I might envision heaven - where there was never a care or a worry: the inhabitants just lolling about in a state of bliss.
Today? My vision of Utopia looks more like what I envisioned as a child that the world would be once I had attained full adult-hood. At 44, I have a sense of incredulity that is unrivaled, yet my incredulity at what has become of this nation's soul increasingly mounts on a daily basis. On a daily basis, I find myself more horrified and sickened. Sometimes, like today, I sit here in amazement, remembering the `good ole days' of, say, just last year, when I had some hope that things could be turned around.
Today I see evil creeping into every aspect of our world. I see trouble. Double trouble for a whole lot of Americans. Our government is to be feared. Below I will describe why it isn't necessarily our government that should be feared - but our people.
It is hard to pinpoint the number 1 evil that this `government over the people' has wrought. But I have to say that three things lead the pack - if I am using my god-given gut instinct for danger to measure.
1. The pics evidencing torture at Abu Gharib at the hands of US CITIZENS. But more, the SILENCE and APATHY about such evidence as I walk through my daily life. Nary a concern amongst the citizenry. Nary a concern. Wow.
2. Death Squads in Iraq. Coming soon to your nearest US holding center. Negroponte - famed death squad cheerleader in Central America in the 1980's - as Ambassador to Iraq put these death squads into motion in Iraq. We all know it. It's what he does best. What should chill us all is that Mr. Negroponte (in Spanish: Black Point!) is now Intelligence Director of the USA. He's working OT for us. An introduction of John Negorponte in the event that you aren't quite sure who he is: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
3. Executive branch is spying illegally on Americans through the NSA program. What is truly amazing is that the American people are not up in arms. Instead, we find a senate inquiry into this designed specifically to make what's illegal, legal. It's one thing to have an intrusive, dangerous government. It is quite another to have a populace who waves it off as insignificant or, worse, with a conclusion that "if it's illegal, I am sure my congressional reps will see to it that the problem is remedied. They work for us, after all."
You know, I am not afraid of this evil government. I am afraid of the American People! They should be feared. Good god. No sense of the constitution. No memory of what it is that made this nation such a great living experiment (it wasn't the nuke arsenal! It was the creation of the strongest middle class in the history of the world. In human history! The most people in one nation experiencing a prosperity that will never come to be for 90% of the world's population. We had People Power. And we squandered it. We got fat and lazy and apathetic. We chose this! We chose Bushco. We chose ongoing war. We chose "throwing the elderly to the curb to die." We chose Corporatism. We chose ALL OF THIS.
Back to Utopia. Three years ago I thought it would be possible to maybe put together an intentional community right here in the USA. I am kind of glad I didn't go to the trouble. Is there any place on this continent that would be out of the reach of this vicious and dangerous band of thugs? I wonder. Now I wonder if any place on this earth would be out of the reach of this global theo-corptocracy (new word!).
For the party poopers who think I just want to `cut and run' I say: what country did you wake up in today? And what's the solution to getting back on track? Cause I don't see it. Just don't see it today. I am a democratic precinct committee person, and I can't - with any conscience - tell voters: Hey, let's just vote the bums out and once the democrats take control which is a slim possibility, things will get back to normal.
Did anyone ever see Hitler or Mussolini or Pol Pot ever leave their thrones of evil by anything other than death? And does the American populace have it in them to do what it takes to overthrow this evil? I don't see it. Just don't see it. Oh, every thing that goes up must come down. And, in time, the people of America will stand up. But at what price? And which American people? Our children? Our grandchildren? Our great grandchildren?
I am lucky. I smoke. I am 44. I don't expect to live all that much longer. Maybe 10 years. The way I figure it, I suppose I could find a desolate little plot of land somewheres and create an intentional community. I suppose Rule 1 would be: No children. Only because, man, I couldn't bear to pass them to the society that is looming. Children and dogs. Two of the most important beings on earth. And I just can't bear to even think about what their world will be like just 10, 20 and 30 years out from now. Breaks my heart.
Anyone here up to create a special Utopian intentional community?