T What if community is the answer? O “When people ask me where to move to escape climate change, I tell them G there’s no escape and that the thing to look for is a strong community. is E book explains how to build that kind of community anywhere—it’s a manual T for the future.” H Bill McKibben E Author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet R “Is it possible to jettison our current system of exploitation and R environmental destruction, and create a new system, that is not only E S Resilient sustainable but affords us a comfortable and fullling life? e answer is a resounding yes. Ma’ikwe Ludwig eloquently reminds us how the way is I L fraught with challenges and shows us how to conquer them. is is a I must-read for anyone who cares about the future of the human race.” E Chong Kee Tan, PhD N Founder of Bay Bucks T Real hope comes from looking uninchingly at our current circumstances and then committing wholeheartedly to creative action. Never has that been more urgently needed than right now, with the climate crisis looming larger every day. is book advocates for citizen-led, community-based action rst and foremost: why wait for the government when you can take action today, with your neighbors? From small solutions to the full re-invention of the systems we nd ourselves in, this book mixes anecdote with data-based research to bring you a wide range of options that all embody compassion, creativity, and cooperation. Ma’ikwe Ludwig is a cooperative culture pioneer, and long-time M advocate for intentional community A and sustainability. She is a teacher, ’ public speaker, writer, and consultant I K for communities and social change organizations, and makes her home in W Laramie, WY with fellow ecovillage E folks. Learn more about her work at maikwe.net. L Cover design: Rob Allen @n23art U Author photo: Katie Williams Printed on 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper D Distributed in the US by Chelsea Green Publishing Published by the Fellowship for Intentional Community W www.ic.org I G $17.95 USD MA’IKWE LUDWIG Together Resilient Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption Ma’ikwe Ludwig Copyright 2017 by the Fellowship for Intentional Community Fellowship for Intentional Community 23 Dancing Rabbit Lane Rutledge, MO 63563 All rights reserved. Parts of this book may be reprinted with permission from Ma’ikwe Ludwig. Academic and other educational purposes do not require permission. Ebook produced in the United States. The Fellowship for Intentional Community is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the development of intentional communities and the evolution of cooperative culture. ISBN: 978-0-9718264-8-9 This book was edited by Chris Roth, the cover was designed by Rob Allen, and it was proofread and typeset by Marty Klaif. This book and others by the author may be ordered at: www.ic.org/community-bookstore for Jibran, Andrew, Nandi, Abby, Noah, and Nebiyat for your sakes, I hope I am wrong about the worst of it and right about the best of it —ML Contents Foreword ......................................................ix Acknowledgments . xiii Introduction: The View from Cornfields ............................xvii Chapter 1: Defining the Territory ..................................1 Chapter 2: Limiting the Damage: Community as a Tool to Reduce Carbon Footprints ................15 Chapter 3: Surviving It..........................................43 Chapter 4: Starting a Residential Intentional Community . 65 Chapter 5: Everyone’s Work: Culture and Emotional Integration.......109 Chapter 6: Context Matters: Legal and Economic Reform to Restore the Commons ..............125 Chapter 7: Together Resilient ...................................141 Afterword: The Future of the Intentional Communities Movement.......153 Appendix I: More on the Hofstede Indices........................155 Appendix II: More on Gross National Happiness ..................159 Appendix III: The Black Lives Matter Platform ....................161 vii viii Foreword I am happy to be supporting this book with its vitally needed message. Ma’ikwe and I share a commitment to building cooperative culture. For the past 40 years, I and my organisation Local Futures have raised awareness about the fundamental importance of community, about the importance of rebuilding close webs of social support. I came to this conclusion because of experiences in Ladakh or “Little Tibet.” In 1975 I was asked to accompany a film team to this remote region in the Himalayas. In my work as a linguist I had travelled to many parts of the world, but nothing had prepared me for what I encountered in Ladakh. High up on the Tibetan plateau, I came to know a people who had never been colonised or “developed,” and were still living according to their own values and principles. Despite a harsh and barren environment, people were pros- pering both materially and, more significantly, emotionally. Before coming to Ladakh I had studied psychology at university, where I’d been led to believe that certain features of human nature—greed, fear, and competitiveness in particular—lay behind most of society’s ills. Yet after being in Ladakh, I began to see that Western culture distorts human nature. It breeds separation, competition, and a self-conscious need to keep proving ourselves. As it became clearer to me that it is our global, industialized consumer culture that makes us feel out of place and disconnected, I felt a sense of relief. It was deeply healing to discover that so much of our psychological unrest (including my own sense of displacement) came from a culture out of balance, rather than an intrinsic human flaw. In Ladakh, well-being was maintained through intimate daily contact be- tween people and the natural world; and through knowledge about one’s im- mediate environment with its changing seasons, needs, and limitations. The “environment” was not some alien, problematic sphere of human concern; it was where people lived. The understanding that was gained through a life rooted in the natural world created a sense of kinship with plants and ani- mals. I saw how the profound psychological security that was gained through community and a deep contact with nature fostered tolerance and openness toward others. x Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption The traditional spiritual teachings were a reminder of belonging: a re- minder of our inextricable interdependence one with another and with everything in the cosmos. This message was ever present in community life, in a way of living in which you knew that you could depend on others to lend a helping hand. In rituals and in words of wisdom, passed on from the elders to the young ones, the importance of interdependence was constantly reinforced. Spending time with Ladakhi families, I saw how children were brought up in an enveloping network of extended family, friends, plants, and ani- mals. My close friend Dolma, for example, spent much time with her baby boy Angchuk, but caring for the baby was not her job alone, everyone looked after babies. Even the teenage boys from next door were not embarrassed to be seen cooing over little Angchuk or rocking him to sleep with a lullaby. This brought out the boys’ ability to care and nurture—qualities that were embraced, rather than rejected, by masculine identities. Children were not segregated into peer groups; they grew up surrounded by people of all ages, from young babies to great-grandparents. Education was the product of an intimate relationship with the community and its environment. Children learned from grandparents, family, and friends about connections, process, and change, and about the intricate web of fluctuating relationships in the natural world around them. When villagers gathered to discuss important issues or had festivals and parties, children of all ages were present, observing the processes or partaking in the festivities until they sim- ply dropped off to sleep. Old people also participated in all spheres of life. For the elderly in Ladakh there were no years of staring into space, unwanted and alone; old age implied years of valuable experience and wisdom. There was no hurry to life, so if grandparents worked more slowly it did not matter. One of the main reasons old people remained so alive and involved was their constant contact with the young. The very oldest and the very youngest formed a special bond; they were often best friends. Life in traditional Ladakh stands in stark contrast with the typical West- ern experience of growing up and ageing. Within almost every family, the economic pressures on parents systematically rob them of time with their children. As a consequence, more and more young children are relegated to the care of strangers in crowded day-care centres. Older children are often left in the company of violent video games or the corporate sponsors of their favourite television shows. Flesh-and-blood role models—parents and grand- parents, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbours—that children once looked up to, are replaced with media and advertising images: glamorous movie and rock stars, steroid-enhanced athletes, and airbrushed supermodels. Time spent in nature—fundamentally important to our psychological wellbeing— is increasingly rare. Foreword xi The globalised consumer culture disconnects us from one another and from the natural world, blinding us to what is essential for happiness and wellbeing. It destabilises our sense of belonging—to community, to place, to the earth—and replaces stable senses of self with insecure identities created through consumer products and images. All around the world, people are beginning to understand that, in order to wean ourselves from our personally, as well as ecologically, destructive consumer addictions, we need to rebuild structures that support a sense of belonging, and allow us to see our impact on others and on the natural world.