Utopian Design

Jenna Haag

Political Utopia

Final Utopian Design

Jennatopia

I envision both an intentional community and, eventually, a global utopia. The goal of the intentional community would be to serve as a model which would, I hope, inspire others to emulate it, contributing to a wave of evolutionary change. Its fundamental values and concepts would be a high degree of individual freedom coupled with a high degree of individual responsibility, voluntary cooperation, mutual aid, freedom of association (and freedom to disassociate) democratic decision making, ecological sustainability, feminism, the personal as political, personal development, creative involvement, dealing openly with emotional and sexual issues, and healing the rift between the sexes. In short, I'd want a community whose dual goals were broad social change and personal transformation. Because I believe that a small-scale utopia will (obviously) be much easier to achieve in the short run than a global utopia, I'm outlining my vision for an intentional community rather than a global utopia.

In the community, I would want to work with only those who share our fundamental goals, values, and commitments. To attempt to be more "inclusive" would lead to loss of focus. So, finding the right people would be my first goal.

In regard to the physical site, I would want to avoid social stratification through having either common ownership, renting, or a land trust, with all those living there contributing to the costs. We do not want a stratified community with owners and renters. As for children, I like the model in which children live collectively with a few adult caretakers in a "children's house." Their parents interact with them as much or as little as is mutually agreeable, which I believe is healthier than inescapable, nuclear family interaction. As to education, we would prefer a "free school" environment, rather than forcing children to endure captivity in "public" (government) indoctrination centers, where they'd learn skills and attitudes designed to turn them into interchangeable parts.

The decision-making/political structure I envision is what was once commonly called "participatory democracy." In a community setting, this means that there would be no government (or individual rulers), but rather that the entire community would make major decisions at open forums, and that there would be attempts to reach consensus before resorting to voting. It also means that there would be considerable delegation of decision making on minor matters to work groups, with their decisions subject to revocation by the community as a whole if controversy arose.

The easiest way for an intentional community to operate economically is to have everyone pay an equal amount for the community's upkeep (food, rent, utilities, etc.). Due to the economies of scale, this usually works out to a substantial savings over the amount one spends in what-passes-for-normal society. Ideally, I would want a community featuring income and wealth sharing, but it's a mistake to rush into such things. So, at least to start, I would want to try a community based only on expense sharing.

I do, however, foresee a community with cooperative and individual businesses; but would not want to make economic activity the focus of the community. Due to the low living expenses and the economies of communitarian living, expect that those involved would work less than people in consumerist society, and would thus have a considerable amount of time to devote to political work, creative activities, relationships, etc.

One of the primary focuses of the community I envision would be healing the rift between the sexes and building a society based on partnership rather than domination. This has several implications. First, it would mean that there would be no rigid gender roles, and that men and women would have equal rights and responsibilities. Second, sexual freedom would be encouraged, and men and women would be equally free. Third, experimentation in relationships would also be encouraged, with there being no one "right" kind of relationship (as, in consumerist society, with the nuclear family), as long as relationships were between consenting adults. Another focus would be freeing individuals (especially women) from the burdens of child care, through collective child rearing. Finally, problems of sexual jealousy and possessiveness would be, when necessary, publicly (and compassionately) processed rather than, as at present, in both "straight" society and most intentional communities, ignored.

Science would not be a major focus of our community, but it would not be anti-science, anti-rational, or anti-technology; in fact, it would be pro-science and scientifically aware. The primary reason for this is that intentional communities have limited resources, so scientific/technological efforts would necessarily be focused on inexpensive, low-tech approaches, especially in the ecological/environmental area, which is probably the