jumble of random thoughts...

...about an intentional community and a meditative religion that looks for the inner self instead of external mind control.

the real, original self.

traditions can be arbitrary. you can't argue logically to do this one way or the other way. both have their benefits and drawbacks. for the sake of stability, we keep traditions, so that we don't have to make trivial decisions about every detail of life. when we see familiar things at a glance, then we are free to notice more important things.

they're free to leave the community at any time; let them go out to the mainstream, worldly culture; if they're happier in that place. paying debts for years, then losing your job and becoming unable to pay your debts; then, without credit, becoming unable to buy a car;

ethanol damages engines. be prepared to lose your vehicle. you have no control over ethanol damage to your vehicle. it is as bad as eye-damaging energy-saver light bulbs, which will soon be mandatory.

being unable to have children, because kids are too expensive. or your health is too bad.

what is happy about this mainstream, that i remember from my life?

giving up technology: i've enjoyed video games; i love propellerheads reason and don't want to give that up. there are things on computers, music, movies, that i wouldn't want to give up entirely.

what would replace them? there could still be plays in the theater without tv. there could still be sports. there could be travel and exploring. there could be hunting expeditions.

i don't know just HOW MUCH to cut back on fiat money reliance and products that depend on government monopoly utilities like electricity and gas.

this is the 'without fiat money' culture. we could still have small-scale metallurgy, from local iron ore, and small-scale coal mining, etc. those replace fiat money at the local level.

i like being able to go on a long trip in the car easily. i have nothing against cars as such; but they are part of government now. they would have been free long ago, or in some world without borrowed money and speculative corporations.

in a small community, you feel trapped; there's a word for it, and i forget; parochial, or something. a place too small. you're allowed to go out traveling to another group. this is especially helpful to prevent inbreeding and it's something people naturally tend to do - they don't like to stay in one place and see the same faces forever.

the mind control versus meditation/religion: you might not want to block out EVERYTHING that's out there, because we interact with the earth's electromagnetic fields. but you have to block out human 'intervention,' which should not be merely called 'intervention,' but rather, assault and battery. assault and battery on people's brains and bodies, preventing them from thinking for themselves.

thinking about scientific progress in an intentional community: perhaps it would be forbidden to have 'secret' scientific work; government-funded work is forbidden; it must come from somebody's own money instead of government; if they want to work for the government and make scientific advances that can't be done on a limited budget, then let them leave the community. 'science' is usually a belief system that is so closely connected with government, with the monarchy, with the military - it's the science of how to make a bigger projectile fly a farther distance to kill a larger number of people. certain types of science will be approved of; all will come from the limited budgets of ordinary people instead of taxes and fiat money. they will have to be profitable, or no one will pay for them.

this is because i was thinking of the benefits of the amish community, and how they REALLY HAVE survived for hundreds of years, and how their members are in some ways - not all ways, but in some ways - healthier than in the mainstream community. but the amish don't want too many modern inventions - they carefully accept only a few things at a time, and they think about the impact it will have on the community.

the community is always open, so people do drop out of it if they don't like it. i emphasize that again and again, if the rules seem too harsh or too restrictive. if you don't like it, then don't live here. there should be such strong benefits to living in community that you WANT to stay even with some strict rules.

i don't want to idealize the amish. i know that the people who leave them have legitimate grievances against that culture. even so, there are aspects of that community that can give us information about how to build a stable, long-lasting community/subculture/religion.