Discuss: Where Have All the Joiners Gone?

Thanks for the thought on intentional communities & Orion. There certainly is common ground there, and a number of ICs are members of the Orion Grassroots Network, meaning that they get Orion magazine and a host of other practical services to aid their work and development.

Membership is open to any organization that works for people and planet. There is info on the 1,200 member groups (speaking of “joiners") here as well as more info on the benefits of joining:

http://www.orionsociety.org/ogn

Erik
Orion Grassroots Network

great article. it could all be down to evolution though…

i think they are all around hiding

I live in a rural area. I’ve watched 100’s of families lose their farms. The politicians might cry out for the “family” farmers, but the subsidies go to the big guys. The other day I went to the big city. I was shocked at how many stores where owned by corporations. I grabbed on to the american dream only to watch it go up in a smoke called “economic growth”. I’m tired of the lies.

Re: joining a CSA

We have been members of two CSAs in NH. While it does, indeed, provide opportunity for conversation, what we have found is that in the time since McKibben describes, we have lost the ability to honestly cooperate. Intrigue, cliques, etc. were alive and well in both CSAs. We agree that they are a very good idea and the cooperation McKibben describes is also a very good idea, it will be necessary to figure out how to get along cooperatively to do so. Perhaps in times past, they had this challenge too once upon a time and figured out how to solve it. Hopefully we can relearn it.

Don’t make work out of it, put your energy into your family.

Today life presents moving goal posts. The Amish/Mennonites have chosen to tend to the team (family) and the grass (farm) leaving moving goals (consumerism) to others, maybe what they know is how to pass the time instead of spend it.