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CallaFirestormBW -> RE: Commune-ism (9/6/2009 5:40:44 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: TheHeretic
I didn't want to hijack another thread where this started to come up, but I am curious. How many people have ever actually lived in a commune, or a community of people that could be described as such? How did it work out? Did the sustainability of the group depend on a certain level of turnover among the members?
I have lived in both a formal commune for a time in my youth, and far more casual "everybody shares" arrangements as an adult. My experience is that individuals always fuck it up, by getting power happy, or getting lazy.
I would very much appreciate hearing from those who have experienced these social organisms working well.
I don't think -anything- lasts forever, but my first and 2nd experience with poly living came with communal-living arrangments (a co-housing group and a commune). My experiences were good -- good enough that when the opportunity came about to become part of -another- communal household 14 years ago, I jumped on it, even though it meant doing something I had -never- done before and could never have conceived of myself doing (Comprehensive M/s, with me in the 's' role while I "earned my crop").
I'm still with the House -- and though we will be relocating next year in bits and pieces, we're joining up with a communal household there, started last year by my son, so it's actually worked for us through two generations.
For me, I've found that you get -out- of communal life what you put into it. Success comes from having common goals, and genuinely considering the other members of your community as family -- and always remembering that the comprehensive person, with all hir characteristics, is the person whom you welcomed into the family... so even when some traits become annoying, you remember that those people wouldn't be who they are -without- those traits... it makes it easier to cope when things are rocky (which they -will- be).
Dame Calla
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