Imagining a different future

Clean air & clean water, safe food, affordable shelter & healthcare, quality communal spaces, lifelong learning opportunities, more leisure time, universal rights and freedoms.

Are we on the path to achieve any these goals? Of course not, it is not even clear whether any of the supposed “leaders” have any interest in any of this.

Does this mean that we have to give up on these aspirations? We have a duty to ourselves and to our children to live the best life possible in our circumstances.

Imagining a different future requires that we refuse to accept that the current situation is the result of forces which are outside of our control, we start by imagining a different present, the outcome of choices made in the past by people in a similar position to us now.

Our options are limited by circumstances, but we must have the will to sacrifice some comfort and some security to put ourselves in a position to work for what we aspire to.

Recent events have shown that the majority of people will choose comfort over freedom, security over personal responsibility, this is not a new phenomenon, here is Dostoevsky speaking through the words of the Grand Inquisitor in the Brothers Karamazov.

“We will give them that quiet, humble happiness, which alone benefits such weak, foolish creatures as they are, and having once had proved to them their weakness, they will become timid and obedient, and gather around us as chickens around their hen. They will wonder at and feel a superstitious admiration for us, and feel proud to be led by men so powerful and wise that a handful of them can subject a flock a thousand millions strong.”

In this passage the writer is talking about the Catholic church and the power it held through the Inquisition in the 15th century and beyond, which resulted in the consolidation of the power of the Spanish monarchy.

There are clear parallels with the present situation, with the original role of the church being appropriated by “science” and a number of dogmas being disseminated, ostensibly “for our safety”, but in reality to consolidate power within large, unaccountable corporations and opaque government agencies.

As people gather in increasingly large numbers to live and work in cities, they unwittingly restrict their options and exchange their personal freedoms for the comforts of life in the city, and they enslave themselves by taking on debt and increasing their dependence on structures which are outside of their control.

We imagine a different future in which we give ourselves and our children the opportunity to live in nature, choosing a direction in life by instinct and vocation and not because of economic concerns.

The skills of self reliance, like patience, endurance and practical knowldege are the essential foundation for any type of independent lifestyle, we can only make decisions which are in our best interests for the long term if we are not constrained by debt and the spectre of poverty and homelessness.

The life we imagine, as we work at Phusang Garden, is one of natural abundance through hands-on experience, individual development, through the sharing of knowledge and independence, through personal responsibility.

These aspirations can only become reality in an intentional community type of context, where people who share common goals come together to help each other lighten the load and get each other through difficult times.