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THE TRANSITIONS MOVEMENT.
Chris James.
The Transitions Movement [also referred to as Transition Towns] is said to
build resilience amongst small communities by returning them to a localized
land economy.1 In this essay I argue that the most devastating impacts on life
and land are caused by the desire for territory, raw resources and ongoing wars.
I contend that localization will not create appropriate change it will merely
allow for the re-territorialization of existing power relations. Further, in the
context of escalating regional violence I argue that stand alone localization will
enforce feelings of patriotism, nationalism and xenophobia.
Localization puts a strong focus on resilience and protection for local
communities by way of limiting consumption and growing local food. There is
always justification for reducing consumption and improving domestic food
productivity, but its necessity pales against the desperation felt by the worlds
impoverished millions who must rely on the international community for
support. Many of these people are the victims of government mismanagement,
secret dealings, corporate greed and renewed colonization; added to this are the
growing impacts of global warming. Most of these problems are caused by
capitalism. The Transitions movement is not against capitalism it merely colors
it green and calls it sustainable. Living with sustainable capitalism does not
equate with a sustainable world. Undoubtedly, local communities need
resilience and self-help is generally a good means of positive reinforcement and
psychological uplifting when times are hard, but the local and the global are
both important. The history of western development is one of exploiting the pre-
modern world and global warming is not sufficient reason to abandon these now
developing populations or for suggesting they fend for themselves. The world
1Rob Hopkins [2004] Transitions Handbook, Totness, Green Press, p8.
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needs a strong global social movement to combat poverty, aggression and
climate change. Environment issues are global and the well being of the planet
is contingent on the well being of all its global inhabitants.
Globalization and corporatization run alongside in the growing condemnation
of fast capitalism, but globalization need not be predicated on corporate greed
and damage to people or the environment. The corporation is a feature of civil
society and the western middle class. Corporatism grew out of the Capitalist
Revolution, the new mercantile class and the nation state, which stands in
opposition to any kind of benevolent internationalism.
It was inevitable that national capitalism would become global and this has
produced damaging results for the western middle class and small business, yet
the desire to make lifesmallandsimple is a return to nationalism and misplaced
because it leads to the negation of bigger problems at hand.
The Transitions Movement represents the reification of a declining middle
class and the reinvention of capitalism via the green dollar; this is not the end of
corporate greed and worker exploitation. Indeed, some of the worlds poorest
people are being exploited to fuel the western green revolution. Green
capitalism means more competitiveness not less and this brings additional
hardships for the poor and disadvantaged. The new transitions discourses also
include sophisticated forms of indoctrination used to bring about false
consciousness; for example the idea that the impoverished can be lifted out of
their misery via a western type civil society based on localization. Civil society
is a meretricious system; it does not empower people to seek equality.
Anti-Enlightenment and the De-Centering.
The Transitions Movement shares with the eighteenth century anti-
Enlightenment Movement the trend of de-centering the subject in favor of a
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world viewed through a transcendent nature; this is the world imagined, not the
world as it is. At the same time it allows for business as usual elsewhere.
Odd though it may seem, some of the worlds biggest polluters are also the
greatest advocates for the environment, but the aim is to make money and
protect the elite not to improve the worlds ecosystems. As such, I contend that
the proposed transition is also promulgating the existence of a green rich and a
green poor, the same formula inherent in capitalism. To this end, I contend the
Transitions Movement works to prop-up an old established and conservative
orderusing feel good philosophies and commodity fetishes. This, in my view,
puts the Transitions Movement amidst the New Age Green Deal discourses and
quasi-religious cults. Further, I contend this turns direct political action and
resistance into passive and subordinate resilience, which can only benefit a
ruling class.
Importantly, most people joining the Transitions Movement are well
motivated and have genuine concerns for the future of the planet; but like every
group and movement, the intentions of the masses might be well founded, but
when power becomes concentrated amongst the few then it those in the higher
echelons who will stand to benefit. History has shown that grass roots
movements all too often become top down, institutionalized frameworks co-
opted by governments and corporate interests. This leads to a discourse of
doublespeak that leaves many people confused.
The idea of a transition has an appealing ring to it and there have been
many forms of transition and community renewal mostly focused on skills
development and education for example, the Australian Federal Governments
Learning Towns initiatives.
The term transition is used quite frequently in relation to health issues and
it holds particular interest for psychotherapists who use the notion of atransition for the treatment of abnormal anxieties. One can for instance,
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transition the internal narratives for more mindful, and sometimes more
subordinate outcomes. Transition is a double edged sword, it can empower
people or it can be disempowering.
The Role of Groups in Development.
The Transitions Movement has developed into a popular brand and it has
raised a number of questions about how we should develop Australian
communities. Should there be class issues, hierarchy and attempts to further
overlay European models of conservation onto a vast and very different
landscape? How might a transition impact on Aboriginal peoples? For First
Nation populations the word conservation has a very different meaning.
Indeed, the entire notion of conservation was formulated around colonization
whereby museums were created to hold the trophies of colonial conquest
including the shrunken testicles, heads and scalps of the tribal warriors. In
many parts of the world conservation equates with invasion and genocide.
Should we be desensitized to these terms or should we amend our language?
The Transitions Movement with its British origins has resonated verystrongly with previous colonization[s] especially in the selling of its brand
overseas. Further, the Movement seems destined to target particular groups
while excluding others. Importantly, transitions need resources and the poor
lack the appropriate resources to take part in the high tech energy revolution so
they get forced into subsistence living.
There are many anomalies. As much as one might dislike the exploitation ofglobal capital to suddenly remove jobs from the worlds poorest people would
cause yet another humanitarian crisis. Any transition has to include workers
rights and this means a commitment to radical politics.
Neo-Colonization.
After reading Michael Perelmans book, The Confiscation of American
Prosperity I began to take a deeper interest in the more obscure forms of
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colonization. In particular, the way the right-wing revolution had occurred in
America over the past thirty years and how it had divided society by deepening
inequality. This has led to conspiracy theories claiming the existence of a secret
plot to bring about a one world government whereby the response has been a
return to localization and smaller governments. Many of these groups claim to
be non-political, many are religious and/or Evangelical. I see no problem with a
one world government in principle. It depends who runs it and whether it is a
fair and just government. I envisage a lot of problems arising from government
policies influenced by the church and/or the New Age quasi-religious groups.
This could never happen, I hear people saying. It is happening.
Undoubtedly, there is little justice in the world today. Over the past three
decades the rich have confiscated the resources and income from the poor and
middle classes creating an underclass of unemployed and/or cheap labor.
Perelman maintains this situation leads to an eventual crisis.2
Others have
called it a total collapse.3
Desperate people take desperate measures and often
look outside the norm for solutions. Religions and myths have strong appeal atthese times of difficulty. It begs the question, how might the Transitions
Movement address the global issues from a local perspective without playing
into the hands of the ruling elite?
Transitions are not a new idea. Quasi-religious groups and cults have
been trying to transition their societies for centuries, a few have succeeded;
most have failed. In 2008 Richard Sen ORourke prepared a Masters Thesis atthe London School of Economics & Political Science titled Transition Towns:
Ecotopia Emerging? The role of Civil Society in escaping Carbon Lock-In.
ORourke asked what is it about the Transition Town movement that seems to
2 Michael Perelman [2012] The Confiscation of American Propserity:From Right-Wing
Extremism and Economic Ideology to the Next Great Depression. Palgrave Macmillan.
3 Jarod Diamond. [2004] Collapse: How Societies decide to Fail or Succeed. London.
N.Y. Viking.
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have caught the publics imagination? Particularly in light of the current UK
Governments beleaguered Eco-Towns initiative which seems plagued with
difficulties.4 ORourke took as his lead from two important publications
dealing with environmental failure on climate change. The World Wild Life
Fund [WWF] report entitled Weathercocks and Signposts: The environment
movement at a crossroads [WWF UK, 2008] and Death of Environmentalism,
[Shellenberger & Nordhaus, 2004] and the subsequent book, Breakthrough:
From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility [Nordhaus &
Shellenberger, 2007]. Using these two critiques of environmentalism as lenses
through which to investigate the emerging Transition Initiatives, ORourke
interviewed various well known ecologists and then compared their views to
those of the Transitions Movement. ORourkes thesis drew specifically on
how the movement articulates its vision of the future and the values of the
people drawn to its vision. He suggested there was nothing new about the
Transitions Movement. The people who joined it had roughly the same values
and middle class status as those who joined other environment movements.Many were attracted to the new focus of peak oil as a vehicle for change, but
whether the argument could be sustained into the future was uncertain as oil
production was escalating with new technologies. ORourke also noted the
strong ecological and permaculture links, but he stopped short of calling the
Transitions Movement a popular cult. Nor did he link the Transitions Movement
with the previous Anthroposophy Movement. This is not surprising theconnection is not well publicized. ORourke noted the isolationist tendencies
of the Transitions Movement, but not the political consequences.
The major appeal of the Transitions Movement has been its depoliticized
stance, which leads people to assume there are no politics involved in the
Movement. Unquestionably, people have felt sick of mainstream politics that go
4 Richard Sen ORourke London School of Economics& Political Science Geography
& Environment Department Environmental Policy & Regulation Program 2008
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nowhere. Rob Hopkins, the Transition Towns founder made it clear that his
movement is not political because he was fearful of being associated with the
political Left,5
but this claim does not necessarily make the movement non-
political. In fact the Transitions Movement is deeply inscribed with a discursive
conservation temper that is highly political.
To think about depoliticized as being non-political is misleading. It is, I
would argue, a means of avoiding political scrutiny. As methodology expert
Michael Crotty has stated there is always the towering figure of Karl Marx
casting his shadow over all inquiry that describes itself as critical.6
The Mood of New Millennium Politics.
It was the 2004 collapse of mainstream environmentalism that gave rise to
the new depoliticized Transitions Movement with a focus on localization and
green market perspectives. Against this dramatic change there has been little, if
any action by governments to halt the destruction of the environment by the
worlds dirtiest industries. There has been a new emphasis put on border
protection which finds strong correlations with the localization ideals.
Patriotism has increased as has the shift back to nationalism and corporate
imperialism. In effect the fears of being associated with the Marxist left have
given rise to an emerging new right extremism, whereby staunch conservative
and openly neo-Nazi groups appear to be enjoying a resurgence in Europe. It
comes at a time when the capitalist markets are plagued by increasing financial
chaos and ongoing social disquiet. Why should this concern us?
5 ABC Bush Telegraph. 13th June 2011. Interview: Chris James and Rob Hopkins.
Founder of Transitions Towns Answers Criticism. Director B.Tromp.
http:/www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2011s3242428.htm Retrieved 20th May
2012.
6 Michael Crotty [1998] The Foundations of Social Research, Sydney, Allen and Unwin,
p114.
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The 2012 Greek electorate gave 7% of their votes to the neo-Nazi Golden
Dawn party and the group subsequently opened an office in Melbourne. There
is a large Greek population in Melbourne and the group argues that they are
targeting this immigrant population, not Australian politics in general. Time
will tell! In the meantime, the neo-Nazis are uniting the marginalized groups
across Europe, Russia, Scandinavia and the United States with a promise to
return to a perceived nationalist socialist idyllic world.
Clearly, when the system is visibly breaking down, people break down too.
While the rich scramble for every last ounce of gold, oil, gas or precious
minerals they can find, the poor go hungry. As previously stated desperate
people seek out desperate measures, which can often be presented as innocuous
and compelling.
Transition Towns.
The Transition Towns Movement originated in the United Kingdom as a
response to peak oil and climate change and emerged from the ideas of an
environment student named Louise Rooney. These ideas were later made
popular by the environment studies teacher Rob Hopkins. Transition Towns
was founded in Kinsale, Ireland and later spread to Totnes when Hopkins
moved there in 2005 and 2006. Hopkins had worked on an Energy Descent
Action Plan with the students of Kinsale College of Further Education. A
student, Louise Rooney developed the Transition Towns concept, which was
then presented to Kinsale Town Council. This resulted in the historic decision
by the Council to adopt the plan and work towards creating an energy descent.
Hopkins pushed the idea to international fame. The main aim of Transition
Towns was to raise awareness of sustainable living and to build local resilience
against peak oil and climate change. Communities were encouraged to follow
the 12 steps plan set out in the Transition Handbookfor reducing energy usage,
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and creating resilience. One of the major initiatives has been the creation of
community gardens to grow food. The gardens follow the models of deep
ecology and permaculture which in turn has links with the bio-organic advocate
and mystic Rudolf Steiner whose teachings are called Anthroposophy. Totnes
also devised its own local currency, the Totnes pound, redeemable in local
shops and businesses.7
Geographer Nicholas Crane made a documentary film called Totnes and he
calls the Transition Towns project an ambitious social experiment.8
Unlike
Australia, Britain is a distinctly urban nation with an expected rise in urban
dwellings by 2030 housing approximately 92 percent of the population.
However, the town of Totnes stands in stark contrast to the new and often sterile
cities of England by offering a deep sense of history and nostalgia, but it does
not come cheap and it is not for everyone. Totnes is a Saxon town in South
Devon and one of the oldest towns in Great Britain. By the 12th century Totnes
was already an important market town due to its river access. By 1523,
according to a tax assessment, Totnes was the second richest town in Devon,
and the sixteenth richest town in England.9
According to the Historia Regum
Britanniae written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in around 1136, the coast of
Totnes was where Brutus of Troy, the mythical founder of Britain, first came
ashore on the island.Set into the pavement of Fore Street is the Brutus Stone,
a small granite boulder onto which, according to local legend, Brutus first
7 Wikipedia.Org/Transition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition Retrieved 9th
October, 2009.8 Nicholas Crane, [2011] Towns BBS 2 Episode 4 shown on Australian SBS Friday 3rd
December, 7.30 pm.
http://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5gl Retrieved8th December, 2011.
9 Don Stansbury, [1998] 9071523: The kings town. In Bridge, The Heart of Totnes.
Tavistock: AQ & DJ Publications. pp. 123131. And
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes Retrieved7th December, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitionhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition -
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stepped from his ship and named the town Totnes [totnis or totnes].10 Totnes
is not a mainstream town, it is said to have more heritage listed buildings per
head than any other town in Britain. 11
This makes Totnes with its population of roughly 7,444, a thriving centre for
music, art, theatre and natural health. It has a sizeable New Age community and
is known as a place where one can live a bohemian lifestyle;12 a privilege of the
affluent middle class. The New Age town of Totnes is embedded into the old
highly conservative society. This conservative temper is evidenced not just in
the historical records and architecture, but also in the re-enactment of a Tudor
market, where people dress up in medieval costumes to celebrate the past.13
This is a past viewed through idealism because in Tudor England about a third
of the population lived in desperate poverty.14
Unemployed people were often
forced to leave their villages to look for work, but this was illegal and people
who moved were classified as vagabonds. A law passed in 1536 stated that
people caught outside their parish without work should be punished by public
whipping. For a second offence the vagabond was to lose part of an ear. If a
vagabond was caught a third time s/he was executed.15
The poor still live on the
periphery of the old Totnes and there is little evidence of any long term
10 Wikipedia. Org/Totnesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes Retrieved7th December,
2011.
11 D. Else [2003]Britain.Lonely Planet, 2003p. 381.
12 Adam Edwards [2007].Property in Totnes: Wizards of the wacky West. The Daily
Telegraph. 10th Nov. 2007.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-
wacky-West.html.Retrieved2009-08-15.13 Nicholas Crane [2011] Towns BBS 2 Episode 4 shown on Australian SBS Friday 3rd
December, 7.30 pm andhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5gl Retrieved8th
December, 2011.
14 Sparticus.Org/Poverty [2012]http://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htm
Retrieved9th December, 2011.
15 Ibid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totneshttp://books.google.com/books?id=zhJGpvZwhSIC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&dq=totnes+listed+buildings+per+head&source=bl&ots=CBs92mN16p&sig=MwIHjsvtsQrmgLIdA8efR0FlQXg&hl=en&ei=QtVOTZLaAsaWhQey0_C1Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=zhJGpvZwhSIC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&dq=totnes+listed+buildings+per+head&source=bl&ots=CBs92mN16p&sig=MwIHjsvtsQrmgLIdA8efR0FlQXg&hl=en&ei=QtVOTZLaAsaWhQey0_C1Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDpoverty.htmhttp://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013n5glhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3359800/Property-in-Totnes-Wizards-of-the-wacky-West.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planethttp://books.google.com/books?id=zhJGpvZwhSIC&pg=PA381&lpg=PA381&dq=totnes+listed+buildings+per+head&source=bl&ots=CBs92mN16p&sig=MwIHjsvtsQrmgLIdA8efR0FlQXg&hl=en&ei=QtVOTZLaAsaWhQey0_C1Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CG0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes -
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migration from the council owned housing estates to the ancient and affluent
centers.
The Transition Movement maintains that to save the planet we must re-introduce the old skills such as harvesting fruit by hand and cutting crops with a
scythe, building simply and converting fuels are all encouraged, but this
creates a community engaged in intensive labor; not everyone can participate,
not everyone would want to. The idea of living simply stems from the 1960s
social experiment in commune living, sometimes called intentional
communities.
Intentional Communities.
The 1960s communes were mostly made up of middle class and moderately
educated dissidents who altered the grammar of a mundane capitalist existence
and rewrote the semantics for a radical intervention aimed at dismantling the
status-quo. It was called middle class activism. These activists were mostly
bored, recalcitrant individuals who pretended to live simple, and I some cases
feral, lifestyles. Rather, than actively changing the world the Cultural
Revolution created a new romantic mood linked to the eastern philosophies and
religious rituals. As it happened, the status-quo rejected the new romantic
paradigm and embarked upon an unimaginable conservative backlash, but the
intentional community has remained to become largely conservative and elitist;
so too have the esoteric trends remained.
There has been no clear definition of an intentional community or what
constitutes a realsocial transitioning, ideas are many and varied. Today, in the
west, the social movements have eclipsed the old mode of middle class
separatism and single issue protests to become encapsulated in a struggle to
save the planet from the impacts of industrialization, but the movement is
fraught with material and moral contradictions. Participants have vacated the
symmetrical domes, tents and forest humpies for the more comfortable green
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consumer lifestyle made up of dwellings made of seemingly eco-friendly and
sustainable fabrics. The eco-townships are renowned for their environment
features, solar panels, wind farms and waste recycling, but they are lacking the
promised 1960s social equality. In addition, many attempts to impose ethical
standards on manufacturing and services had to be abandoned in favor of
material desires. Also, the love of exotic foods increased the loss of species like
the shark, whose fin is made into a soup delicacy. By 2000 Animal Liberation
changed this a little, but not enough to make a real difference.
In reality, most people exploring the western housing market could not
afford to live in a green house or an intentional community; the green
technologies and unique modulations do not come cheap. In fact, in the west,
the intentional community today is often a gated community built with the
intent of protecting the rich from the increasing angst of the poor and under-
privileged. As journalist Chris Hedges notes, The quest by a bankrupt elite in
the final days of empire is to accumulate greater and greater wealth Karl
Marx observed this is modern societys version of primitive fetishism.16
Over the decades the intentional communities have gathered interest from a
number of regional, urban and community development theorists and they have
been included in the wider areas of study in the humanities mainly with the
view of introducing bioregionalism. Sociology for instance, which has a long
history in dissident social movement theory, has given particular focus to the
intentional lifestyle and its impact on the larger more established communities.The intentional communities studies have provided a significant overlay
between the sociological genres and cultural studies.
In 1983 Gilbert Zicklin noted that the political ideology that drove the 1960s
and early 1970s communes in the west was largely the functional outgrowth of
the formation of youth ghettos both in urban Bohemia[s] and on college
campuses. The post-War drop-out ration was high because there was a contest
16 Ibid.
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in values between a new generation and an old authority. Many impressionable
young people were also sympathetic to communism. Zicklin maintained the
movement of 1960s-1970s was not intentional; rather it was disorganized,
anarchic and engendered by a counterculture that was largely hostile17
This view was reinforced by social theorists Benjamin Zablocki and Angela
Aidala who believed the American communes were generally middle class, they
described them this way
Classless, white, urban, liberally but not professionally educated, they are
insulated both from any real danger of slipping into poverty, and from anyreal opportunity of becoming absorbed in demanding worthwhile careers.18
Intentional communities in Australia have followed a similar format to
Europe and America. Monro Clark [1986] found that 32 per cent of commune
members had university degrees as compared with 4 per cent of the general
population [figures came from the 1981 Census]. Monro-Clark suggested that
commune members in Australia came mostly from comfortable well established
families.19
This was in stark contrast to working class dissidents who generally
found their avenue of protest through a socialist/neo-Nazi politics and the
dissident unions.
17
G. Zicklin [1983] in Countercultural communes: A SociologicalPerspective [1983]Greenwood Press Westport Connecticut 1983 p1.
18 B. Zablocki [1980] in Munro-ClarkCommunes in Rural Australia:The Movement
Since 1970 and 1986 Sydney, Hale and Ironmonger p50.
19 Monro Clark Margaret [1986/2009] Intentional CommunitiesManual, 1st Edition
Intentional Communities: Communes in RuralAustralia, The Movement Since 1970.
[PDF] ABeginners Guide to IntentionalCommunity at
www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdf Retrieved 20th
May 2012.
http://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdfhttp://www.rivendellvillage.org/Intentional_Communities_Manual.pdf -
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In 2003 ABC Radio National ran a series of programs on communes that
discussed why people joined them and whether this was a viable way of
building a better world. The programs profiled a number of young people who
had grown up in communes and it showed many of the problems that existed in
collectives were merely a microcosm of those within the general society. For
example, work, money and relationships tended to dominate commune life.20
Social theorist Rosabeth Moss Kanter discussed the way communes are forced
to consciously develop integrated social systems that occur organically through
evolution and environmental stimulus in every society. She describes how
motivation wanes in communes and how many groups cannot move beyond the
subsistence level.21
Moss Kanter writes:
Under these conditions, communities simply cannot afford to distribute
scarce resources without assurance that the recipients will devote effective
effort to the collective ends. Thus the humanistic principle cannot be
followed since it requires, in effect that the community have available
resources which it can invest in people for a later return. The only principle
consistent with communal ideology under those circumstances is
socialistic.22
Socialism has historically maintained its position through authoritarianism.
Moss Kanter argues that with poverty comes the pressure to apply capitalist
principles. If the commune prospers this situation can be even more damaging:
It becomes increasingly possible for differences of opinion to arise as to the
relative distribution of resources toward the collective against the individual
20 ABC Radio NationalRe-imagining Utopia. Radio National, May 5th-June 9th 2009
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htm Retrieved 2nd February, 2010.
21 Moss Kanter R [1973] Communes, Creating and Managing the Collective Life New
York, Harper and Row, pp 197-273.
22 Ibid.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htmhttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htmhttp://www.abc.net.au/rn/utopias/programs/default.htm -
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ends. As people begin to perceive that the hard work and deferred
gratification consistent with the establishment of the community is no longer
so obviously necessary, there is the temptation to seek the personal reward
as consistent with that early effort.23
In other words a return to a system of poverty and oppression is likely to
create the very same circumstances that gave rise to the Capitalism Revolution
in the first place.
Separatism.
The Transitions Movement is a politically a liberalist separatist movement;
an odd mix and full of contradictions. Transitions members boycott politics as a
perceived means of changing them. This is not to say individual members are
not politically active outside the movement. However, an implicit separatism
coupled with a universal discourse creates an obvious tension that demands
closer critical examination.
The Transition Movement presents as a grass roots organization, but it is
also highly skilled in the arts of social marketing. The aim of social marketing
is to produce a series of philosophical perspectives clearly marked by design,
implementation, and control of programs, which increase the acceptability of
their existence within a target group.24
Importantly, while these methods of
social marketing proliferate there are few people who actually understand how
they work. Social marketing assumes that people will adopt new behaviors or
ideas if they feel that something of value is exchanged between the individual
and the social marketer, but the value is frequently constructed by
23 Ibid.
24 P. Kotler [1975].Marketing for nonprofit organizations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Prentice Hall.
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manipulating the market. 25 There is no clear picture of what is actually
exchanged. Outcomes are achieved by using communication and social-
psychological marketing techniques to develop and deliver a particular message
or program. Hence, the good marketer frequently sells concepts and practices
that are unrealistic and/or more or less utopian. 26 They sell potential not real
products. These potentials are sometimes called boundary objects. This means
the object may not exist, but it sits at the boundary of possibility. The French
philosopher Jacques Derrida provided a framework for this idea and called it a
simultaneous presence and absence. It works something like a myth and is
based on belief.
Marketing experts profile consumers according to their thoughts, attitudes ,
beliefs and fears and they create products and markets that serve the needs of
these human conditions, but what is created is not always real. For example,
two decades on from the inception of green capitalism, the idea can now be seen
as false because capitalist profits and environmental responsibility are
inherently at odds with each other. Further, the idea is not new. The market
solution to environment problems stemmed from the eighteenth century Liberal
Utilitarian discourse, but limits to growth did not mean curtailing production
or capitalism, it was merely a ploy for keeping the sordid impacts of industry
away from the pristine estates of the rich.
Seemingly, the Transition Movement has relied heavily on the western mediafor its popularity and growth. Without the global media the Transition
25 D.S. Solomon [1989] A Social Marketing Perspective on Communication Campaigns.
In R.Rice and C. Atkin [eds]. Public Communication Campaigns. 2nd edition. Sage,
Newbury Park.
26 L. Wallack [1990]Improving Health Promotion: media advocacy and social
marketing approaches. In C. Atkin & L. Wallack [eds]. Mass Communication and
Public Health. Complexities and Conflicts. Sage, Newbury Park. .
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Movement would probably not exist. Indeed, the Transition Movement
received good publicity in Britain when particular transitioning towns were
featured in the storyline of the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers. The Archers
is an iconic British soap opera. In Britain The Archers program is probably the
equivalent of what The Sullivanswas to Australians, or what Dynasty was to
the Americans. The Archers portrays the fictional and utopian agrarian lifestyle
and it had audiences mesmerized and comparing their own lives to the series
characters. Indeed, The Archers amassed a far greater audience over a longer
period of time than any other media series. In recent episodes ofThe Archers
many very famous people have been featured including politicians and royalty.
The Transition Handbookalso uses people with celebrity status. For example on
page 117 of the Handbookthere is an article on David and Victoria Beckhams
new eco-friendly cottage.
Creating the Ideal Type.
The Archers is a fairytale series designed to create the ideal type. That is
something all lower and middle class Britains should aspire to through hard
work and nationalist loyalties. The program is set in the fictional village of
Ambridge. The real location is thought to be somewhere in the Midlands area of
England. The English Midlands represents two sides of the British class
system; it has a vast industrial sector as well as a very wealthy landowning elite;
sometimes referred to as the gentry. The laboring working classes live in pokeytwo story terraced houses that run like a concrete maze along symmetrical
streets, while the middle class and gentry live in unattached homes and/or
palatial manors; depending on how high up the social scale they are. The
Archers deals with popular topics, but it does so by enforcing the need for
stability perceived as attainable only through the forces of British conservatism.
This is a system largely based on hereditary powers. The Archers are a familywho own a property called Brookfield Farm. It is a property that would be out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambridge_(The_Archers)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midlandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambridge_(The_Archers) -
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of reach for most ordinary English people, but this farm has been passed down
through generations according to British tradition. The original owner Dan
[now deceased] left it to his son Phil, the oldest surviving Archer, and the farm
is now co-owned by three of Phils four offspring: David [who manages it with
his wife Ruth], Elizabeth and Kenton. In addition to the Archers and their
families there are other characters, these include:
the prosperous Aldridges, portrayed as money-driven practitioners ofagribusiness. Brian, the head of the family, is a serial adulterer,
the rich and elderly Woolleys, with Jack now badly affected byAlzheimer's disease,
the Grundys, formerly struggling tenant farmers who were previouslyportrayed comically and disapprovingly, but are now seen as doggedly
battling adversity,
the urban, nouveau riche incomers: pretentious and domineering,Lynda Snell is the butt of many jokes, although her sheer energy makes
her a stalwart of village life. She is partnered by the long-suffering
Robert,
the perpetually struggling [and complaining] Carters, the widower milkman and casual farm laborerMike Tuckerwho battles,
sometimes successfully, depression.27
These characterizations are extremely important because they act as rolemodels and signifiers for real life situations. This in turns serves to deepen the
hierarchical beliefs and social order. Clearly, the Transition Movementhas been
cunning in the way it has publicized its organization. The Archersprogram
stands out as the model of an ideal community. Or what the sociologist Max
27 Wikipedidia.Org/Archers [2009]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_ArchersRetrieved
2nd Jan. 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Aldridge_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agribusinesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Woolley_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Grundy_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant_farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_richehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Carter_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Tucker_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Tucker_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Carter_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_richehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenant_farmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Grundy_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Woolley_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agribusinesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_The_Archers#The_Aldridge_family -
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Weber [1946] referred to as the ideal type. 28 The Transitions Movements
participation in The Archers program raised some criticisms amidst the British
followers, but this has been largely undermined. The Report on theTransition
Towns Research Workshop conducted at Englands Bristol University on the
22nd May 2008 concluded no one watches The Archers. 29 The audience
figures suggested otherwise. The Archers has been prime-time entertainment.
Since Easter Sunday 1998 there have been six episodes a week from Sunday
to Friday, at around 19:02 [preceded by a news bulletin]. All except the
Friday evening episode are repeated the following day at 14:02, and all of
the weeks episodes are re-run as a Sunday morning omnibus at 10:00.
Since 1 January 1951, five 15-minute episodes were running and since
1998, six 12-minute episodes have been transmitted across the UK each
week, at first on the BBC Light Program and subsequently on the BBC
Home Service [now Radio 4].30
The Archers has kept its popularity because it merges ideology and identitywith common topics such as class, employment, housing, drugs, youth, sex and
gay marriage. The plots are woven into the lives of ordinary people to depict
British society. What is revealed in The Archers is a society consistently
struggling with issues of class conflict. A recurring theme on The Archers has
been typically the conflict between the affluent landowners and the laboring
class. In the program this is played out between the working class Grundyfamily and the upper, middle classArchers. With this in mind, in the 1980s the
28 Max Weber [1946] The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
New York Scribners Sons.
29 Transition Towns Totnes [2009] http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930Retrieved 22nd April 2009.
30 Ibid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_(broadcast)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Light_Programmehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-classhttp://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/node/930http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Home_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Light_Programmehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_(broadcast)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Sunday -
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BritishLabourpolitician Neil Kinnockjokingly called forThe Archers to be re-
titled The Grundys and their Oppressors.
TheArchers has remained popular with audiences because British peopleidentify with it. The Archers maintains many topical subjects that people can
relate to. These include the annualOxford Farming Conferenceand the FIFA
World Cup the death ofPrincess Margaret, the World Trade Centre attacks,
and the 2005 London bombings as well as the events and implications of the
2001 foot-and-mouth crisis.31
TheArchers is just one aspect of how the media manipulates and re-creates
history. The great epics are now highly accessible in the television series or on
the cinema screen than they were in books, but they are also a contrived view
that serves vested interests. This according to the philosopher and social
theorist Fredric Jameson causes a loss of primary knowledge. Jameson offers
the example of E.L. Doctorows novel The Book of Daniel[1971].
The Book of Daniel holds up before us, in painful juxtaposition, the two great
moments of the Old Left and the New Left, of Thirties and Forties Communism
and the radicalism of the 1960s.32
The Book of Daniel is a tale designed to loosely replicate the United States
trial and execution of alleged Soviet spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. There
are many similar examples of political/historical novels shaping ideas and
31 Wikipedia.Org/Archers [2009].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archers Retrieved
2nd Jan. 2009.
32 F. Jameson [1993]Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism in
Postmodernism: AReaderDocherty T [end] Harvester Weatsheaf, Hemel Hampstead
England p 77 and online
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.ht
m Retrieved 2nd Jan 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Kinnockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margarethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attackshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/jameson_text_complete.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Archershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_crisishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_bombingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attackshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margarethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cuphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Farming_Conferencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Kinnockhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK) -
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perspectives; they include the [1990] novel Redemption by a former Trotskyite
Tariq Ali whose satire tells how the Trotskyites responded to the downfall of
communism;Dark Horse [2008] by Ralph Reed, which explores the behavior of
candidates in American Federal Elections. All the Kings Menby Robert Penn
Warren, published in 1947 - it was twice made into a film [1949] and [2006] - it
too tells of political power and intrigue. The British politician and peer of the
realm Jeffrey Archer is well known for his political novels like the Fourth
Estate [1996] which tells the story of media barons. We can also count amongst
others Aldous Huxleys Brave New World [1932]: George Orwells 1984
[1948/9] Joseph Hellers Catch 22 [1961] and more.
With this in mind the reader needs to ponder the historical threads and to
deliberate on exactly how they are passed on through the generations to create a
new reality. In this respect, one is drawn to consider the corollary between the
1960s communes [Cultural Revolution] and the Transitions Movements
[Energy Revolution]. Nostalgia for the old creates the desire for new, but it is
often a distorted perception of what is needed for social change.
The Dissenters.
As far back as the 1780s the liberals and conservatives had to deal with
religious and socialist dissidents, Chartism and Owenism were uniformly
hostile to the liberal educators, but they were not alone.33
There is a long list
of non-political dissenting groups. For example: Anabaptists, Barrowists,
Behmenists, Brownists, Diggers, Enthusiasts, Familists, Fifth Monarchists,
Grundletonians, Muggletonians, Puritans, Philadelphians, Ranters, Sabbatarians
33 Ibid p51.
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and Socinian.34 The ideological descendants of the Millerites are the Seventh-
day Adventists, who are distinguished among Christian denominations for their
emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ.35 The Seventh-Day
Adventists have much in common with the Transitions Movement in the desire
to regulate food and land use. They were also advanced in technologies.
Another group to resonate with the Transitions Movement is the Diggers. The
Diggers had their roots in Pentecostalism. They were an English group of
agrarian communists lead by Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard.
Originally known as the True Levellers, in 1649 they and about 20 poor men
assembled at Englands St. Georges Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the
common land for food. In the 1640s food prices in Britain had risen and many
ordinary people were going hungry. It happened because the nation was on the
brink of a Civil War. When Charles I came to the British throne in 1625 he
aimed to unite England and Scotland, thus fulfilling his fathers dream [James
VI of Scotland and I of England]. The British Civil War [1642-1651] was a
series of armed conflicts between the Parliamentarians [Roundheads] and theRoyalists [Cavaliers].
After the fighting the Diggersbelieved that since the English Civil Wars
had been fought against the king and landowners and since King Charles I had
been executed land should be made available to the very poor for growing food.
The Diggers seized common lands and began cultivating it. From 1640 to 1649
34 Wikipedia.Org /Dissenting Groups.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groups
Retrieved 29th October, 2011.
35 Religioustolerance.orgRetrieved 29th October, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groupshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groupshttp://www.religioustolerance.org/sda.htmhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/sda.htmhttp://www.religioustolerance.org/sda.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters#Present-Day_Disenting_groups -
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the Diggersmembershipmore than doubled, but violence from land owners saw
them dispersed by mid 1650. 36
There were many factions at work in England. In addition to the Royalistswho supported King Charles I and the Parliamentary forces; called the
Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell, there were the Fifth Monarchy Men who
believed in the establishment of a heavenly theocracy on earth to be led by Jesus
Christ on his return. The Fifth Monarchy envisioned the House of David as the
government of Great Britain37 Later the Fifth Monarchy found their expression
in a fundamentalist Evangelical movement, which began in the 1730s in Great
Britain38
and spread to the United State. It still exists today and is linked with a
far Right politics.
Depoliticized Communities.
The Transitions Movement declares itself depoliticized and marks a
distinct shift that accompanies a decline in genuine representative democracy
and welfare economies. Instead, it supports a full blown civil society predicated
on the reification of a middle class, localized businesses and small communities.
This form of community renewal is contained in a metaphysics that provides an
important tool for the politically conservative. Community is effective
propaganda, while in fact there is no definitive description of a community.
The word community is derived from the Old French communit, which has
its origins in the Latin communitas describing a fellowship or organized
36 J. D.Alsop [April 1989]Ethics in the Marketplace: Gerrard Winstanley's London
Bankruptcy, 1643 Journal of British Studies no.28 p.97-119.
37 Wikipedia.Org/ Winstanley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley Retrieved
11th December, 2011.
38 D.W. Bebbington [2008]Evangelicals in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to
the 1980s, London: Unwin, 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanleyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanleyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley -
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society.39 No truly homogenized community exists because there is no natural
human trait called like-mindedness; everyone is different and unique, albeit
sometimes in miniscule ways. Nonetheless, societies over the centuries have
attempted to create the ideal subject who might live in the fantasized ideal
community. Notably, this happens at specific times of dissent. In 1878
Ferdinand Tnnies formulated two distinct modes of social order, which have
since served to underline the meaning of community and society; Gemeinschaft
and Gesellschaftrespectively. The English version of this work was published
in 1957Gemeinschaftstands for the more traditional, localized, closed forms of
community that are oriented towards their own collective interests; a unity of
wills. For Tnnies it was the family and religious communities that best
expressed his ideals.40
Gesellschaftdepicts the wider relationships within the
society largely marking the distinction between the private and public spheres.
Tnnies used his distinctions to describe a situation in which people were
expected to develop and mature by way of a universal evolutionary progress. To
put it differently, humans would use community to move from barbarism andaggression or non-rational action to civilization. In this way civilization was
made to appear distinct from the tribe, but as history shows communities remain
imbued with uncivilized tribal behavior.
The Myth of Like-Mindedness.
The idea of community is very pleasing, but the French philosopherMaurice Blanchot sees the community as a dangerous vehicle for cultural
39 Oxford English Dictionary, 2009.
40 F .Tnnies [1957] Community and Society Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
2001 p22. See also Adair-Toteff, C.,Ferdinand Tnnies: Utopian Visionar, in:
Sociological Theory, vol. 13, 1996, p. 58-65 and Wikipedia.Org.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tnnies Retrieved 14th May 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6nnieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6nnieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6nnies -
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relativity. He engages with social homogeneity as a topic in the belief that
sameness finds it continuum in every community because there is an
overwhelming desire to identify with the group, a trait which comes from our
pre-historical past. However, Blanchot believes all notions of ethical conduct
are undermined by the desire for homogeneity, or the concomitant loss of self.41
The situation is even more problematic in small rural townships where
individuals live in constant fear of being punished for any differences. The
smaller the community the more likelihood there is of autarkic abuse.
Jean-Luc Nancy in The Inoperative Community claims the inherent politics
in the conservative community assertions of morals and ethics are essentially
white, patriarchal and middle class. Nancy is very aware of a new morality that
is being embedded into a Third Way depoliticized politics. Small communities,
he argues are constituted around various power relations, but their visibility is
being lost to more discursive forms of power, for example the depoliticized
affinity group. 42 This is particularly apparent in places like Canada and Great
Britain where there is a very active revival in one nation conservatism. In
Britain it was called High Toryism. The High Tory philosophy in the 1700s
promoted low taxation and argued against the Whig support for an expanding
Empire. This changed with the Reform Act of 1832. By the time Queen
Victoria took the throne High Tories supported the Empire and were
personified by the Prime Ministers Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury.43 The Tory
revival in Britain is called Red Toryism, which stems originally from Canada.
41 M. Blanchot [1993] The Infinite Conversation [Trans.] S Hanson Minneapolis,
University of Minnesota pxii. And in M. Strysick [1997] The End of Community and the
Politics of Grammar. Cultural Critique Issue, 36, p198.
42 J.L. Nancy [1991] The Inoperative Community, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota p:
xii.
43 Wikipedia.Orghttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_ToriesRetrieved 14th August,
2012.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Torieshttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Torieshttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Torieshttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Tories -
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A Red Tory is an adherent of a political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in
Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom, but
with an emphasis on communitarianism. In Canada, the phenomenon of Red
Toryism arrived out of the provincial and federal Conservative parties. Prior to
2003 the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a centre-right typical
Red Tory party, but it was virtually wiped out in the 1993 federal election.
Unable to make a meaningful comeback, in 2003, the party merged with the
much more right-wing Canadian Alliance Party to form the Conservative
Reform Alliance Party [CRAP], but due to the unfortunate acronym it changed
again to the Conservative Party.
Red Toryism has been adopted in Great Britain by individuals such as the
British philosopher Phillip Blond, Director of the ResPublica think tank. Blond
promotes a radical and traditional form of communitarian conservatism, which
opposes the welfare state and market monopolies. Instead, Blond advocates
localization and the devolution of centralized powers. Blond also advocates
volunteerism and a complete revival of civil society to support small business
and charities who would monitor poverty.44
This of course is the supremacists
ideal.
The Myth of Supremacy.
Today, the struggle for the ideal type has become encapsulated into the
domain of the multi-media and it is more likely to be consumer markets that
hold influence. These influences include discursive narratives running through
complex networks; such as institutions, state and community politics, groups,
entertainment and other entities. Today, we draw on systems theories for a
better understanding of these entities.
44 Phillip Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_BlondRetrieved 14th August, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blondhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Blond -
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Since its origins systems theory has moved more directly in two directions.
It upholds the system of self-regulation [default] and it resonates with Darwins
evolutionary theory, which has contributed a lot of influence to the analysis of
the post-Enlightenment communities. Darwins ideas are based on the processes
of natural selection where heritable traits are believed to determine survival and
reproduction of an organism. This system is implicit in the internal logic of
market capitalism, albeitoften distorted.
Creating the ideal typeusing Darwins theorieswas the role of nineteenth
century scientific communitarianism. These grass roots community systems
were extended to the peasant class to create ideal workers. It was this same
system that drove colonization, economic speculation, a recession and two
World Wars. I also led to a 1980s economic crisis and another in 2008.
Is it time to change the system yes, but this is easier said than done.
Change happens very slowly. Many social theorists have attempted to change
the system. Historically, the desire to transition communities comes as a
response to various socio-political problems that communities encounter. This
has generally led to gatherings of people who attempt to rescue communities
from their perceived dilemmas. We have called these rescuing collectives
social movements and they are designed to create an ideal type in favour of
the Other. Implicit in these movements are the issues of power, politics, social
justice; law and humanism as well as the seeds of the next Revolution or thenext Transitions Movement. There must be a better way to global harmony.
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