An Open Letter to Intentional Community Minded People
We believe in a smaller, more community-oriented, self sufficient society where as an individual or household, we live with as small a footprint as possible. We believe that as individuals, we have a responsibility to close the circle on our food consumption by growing as much as we are capable of growing, and by thoughtful raising of animals, we can give those animals the best life possible for them while they sustain us and we them.
We would like to:
- Grow our own food for our own consumption
- Grow our animals’ food if they are enclosed and encourage them to forage if free-ranging
- Build or have built structures that are responsible and not wasteful of their energy requirements.
- Use the gifts of the land upon which we live to their best and fullest uses, wasting nothing while taking no more than we need.
- Take advantage of (in all possible ways) the gifts of the sun and wind in the form of heat, and energy.
- Create lasting co-operative relationships with other people through trading and helping in tasks that we cannot grow or do not have the expertise ourselves.
- Be a meaningful and productive member of that society.
- Use wasteful and non-renewable products in as little a way as possible.
- Create a safe and respectful community where each household gives and helps the other through sharing, cooperation, and community efforts.
We see this world as a decadent, corrupt, and consumerist society where the quickest, fastest, least efficient way is chosen. We build and manufacture items for a specified duration so they must be replaced, then throw away and waste the worn out items instead of building things to survive and be maintained as long as possible.
We would rather build, grow, or create our solutions ourselves and be enriched through the process while utilizing the advanced technology we have at our disposal to make the effort as simple, efficient, and easy as possible.
Ideally, we would like to be a member of a community on a piece of land that is large enough to support a minimum of 20 households and all that they require. That community would be one where each household or individual is allowed complete autonomy over their own actions unless they interfered with other households or they asked for help from the others. However, where community efforts are needed, such as grain or hay production, if each household wanted to use the harvest, they would have to participate fully in it’s creation. Members of this community would be allowed their own individual beliefs and allowed to make their own choices – the result of which is fully their responsibility (whether it leads to failure or success). Each household must not impact the community or land in a harmful way – there must be respect for the needs of the land and people of the community.
We would like to see as little government as possible, with as decisive and sober decisions as can be made while fully weighing the issues. Each member of the community is there at the request of the community at large – the safety and success of the community is valued above individual needs. All households in the community must contribute in a substantial way to their own needs, but also the rest of the community.