While you may want to live in a resilient community, the gap between where you are today and actually living, working, and prospering in a real, tangible resilient community can seem as formidable as the Grand Canyon.
For many of us, this feeling is particularly acute when it comes to the social aspects of a resilient community. That makes sense. Our government and our economic system is predicated on making us ever more estranged from our families and neighbors. What they don’t tell us is that this atomized existence comes at a dire cost: complete and utter dependence on remote global systems. Systems that are now starting to break down, fail, and (in an increasing number of cases) crush us. So, it’s little wonder we don’t know much about what it takes to build a functional and thriving community. We simply have never lived in one.
Fortunately, I’m here to tell you that the challenge of building a resilient community, while tough, is possible. Others have done it. I’ve done extensive research to find real, tangible ways to build communities that thrive. Methods you can use to build a community that works or to find communities you want to participate in.
Let’s dive into this a bit. Obviously, there isn’t a pat answer to how best to start, build or organize a resilient community. It’s also contingent on the type of community you want to live in. However, there is a list of methods that you can select from to build a community. Here’s a quick overview of a method that has proven to be effective. I call it the:
The Resilient Hacker-space
The resilient hacker-space leverages a simple idea: that it is possible to make a good, solid income online. I’m not talking about get rich quick online income, I’m talking about a real income from actual work. Everything from telecommuting to a big company to running an online site to doing virtual consulting. People that make a living in this way can live anywhere they can get a good Internet connection.
The resilient hacker-space community starts simply. Two to three friends, with steady virtual incomes, have a common desire. They want to live in a resilient community. They spend some time plotting their grand escape, then pool their resources to buy some land in a great spot.
Soon this community has a dozen people living at the site. Some working the land full time, either growing food or building productive infrastructure. Everyone helping each other. New homes are going up every year, all within walking distance of each other. Everyone in the community is involved in growing the community. The external income from online work provides the working capital necessary to grow and evolve.
There’s lots more to this method than this. I’ll provide more on this and other methods in the future.
Your helping you wrap your head around community building analyst,
John Robb
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From a resilience standpoint, it would seem that telecommuting to support growth and evolution is the same as working for the widget factory. It creates a class of specialized laborers who are not particularly productive without a factory, and population (or at least a standard of living) that cannot be sustained without an external market for widgets.
We’ve built plenty of communities full of people whose work doesn’t actually involve the materials of daily living, communities whose vitality requires a constant influx of something from elsewhere. We have to start talking about the inflection point — the moment when all these factory workers emerge, rubbing their eyes in the sun, to re-engage with their local economies. What must we relinquish? What will we gain?
Justin, Sorry for not being more clear. First, it’s important to differentiate between the end state and the path needed to get there. This is a path. Second, complete disconnection from the system is a false approach. It almost always leads to failures. JR
This is the most important subject you could write on (imho)!
I have a question for you, assuming the core group of people that make their living from the internet purchase the land, how do you see the newcomers fitting into the land model? If the core group bought…. 30 acres (number out of a hat), would you carve off 5 acres and sell it to them? Give them a 99 year lease? Maybe the core group finances the infrastructure and rent’s to the newcomers?
Your idea looks really promising, I look forward to hearing more about this!
Earthaven in North Carolina has an interesting business model, @Matt. Check them out. They’re an eco-community off the grid, and they set up their land as leases on lots.
Also each member owns a portion of the corporation they formed.
This is a great idea in so many ways. Start small. Hybrid approach to resilience with a virtual income, but probably also work a day job until the community builds enough to become a fully functional hacker-space that can sell its services (food, energy, fabrication) to the nearest city.
I really appreciate seeing the big picture first and look forward to the details. With you explaining these things so clearly (“actionable” stuff as you put it), the path ahead becomes all the more clear as well, and I feel less intimated by the task. Starting out is the hardest part, I think.
Thanks Corey. It’s my pleasure. Lots more on the way. Share this newsletter with as many people you think would benefit from it. The bigger our community, the better off we all are. John Robb
@ penny pincher: Thanks for the heads up on Earthhaven. They have a 99 year lease set up. It looks like it is working for them, but I would not want to build something on a piece of land I didn’t own. Call me… conservative. The home I build in my head, will last centuries, and I can gift to my progeny for generations.
@Rob: I don’t have the finances to build out the infrastructure on a Resilient Community (no matter what THAT is), but I don’t think one person has to. Right now I’m leaning towards thinking that some species of Home Owners Association could be useful. A type of corporation formed to share equity amongst different owners. I’m trying to find a combination of community and individualism that works (like everyone else I assume).
Good luck in your searches for resiliency. Keep reading here, John has some awesome ideas.
Thanks Matt. JR
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