This world is going down the tubes... Do I have an answer?? - Communal Living

Hi all, Ive enjoyed this site for almost five years and decided that I needed to post. I am an intelligent person who has stayed abreast of current national and world issues; watching multiple news sources on a daily basis is frankly getting to me. I think we can all agree that the american media blows, the others just as bad. Im not sure how America is going to handle being in five wars at once, under current circumstance. So, our individual breaking points might eventually become an issue... What do we do, how will we prepare? Other than moving to another country, what are our options? Given the inevitable, how might communal living help? What are the pros and cons?

Only being 30 y/o, I wasnt around to experience the communal living culture of the 60s and 70s. Other than the stories, that rarely create positive images, how might one work?

Who ought to be involved to be self sustained?
gardeners, animal farmers, machinist, wood workers, some sort of public relations expert (dont want another Davidian compound incident), teachers.... please add some!

where in the states would you put this?

what kind of acreage would you need? facilities?

how would you accept residents while "keeping out the crazies"?

any other ideas are welcome... this is a prime answer for our predicament. can it work? would you think that normal Americans would be interested in this? How would one avoid the pitfalls that plagued the "idea of communal living"?

Before the flaming commences... I'm not talking about "free love" or the typical organization of what would have found in the 60s and 70s... I'm talking about survival off the grid (as much as possible) when the time comes...

In today's time, we might call it a village.


Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 8/11/2008 by Gools]

Personally, I quite like the idea, but .......... it does need to be done correctly.

If I was involved in something like this, I personally wouldnt place it in the Northern Hemisphere, it would have to be way down south with some good fertile land.

Think Amish. They have been doing this for some time. I suggest if you want to start a "survival commune" go into it with people you allready know. Once you start to bring in the outside world, thats when you get the lunatics.

Look for an area where you can buy up large ammounts of land cheaply. If such a place exists. Make certain you have a water supply and can easily grow food. Having wild game around wouldnt be a bad idea either.

I think it can work, there are several small communes near where I live. They seem to do well enough, just be very selective over what you are doing, and who is with you.

Also, dont heavily promote the idea of what you are doing, i.e. no giant fences, razor wire, etc... that will just get the authorities on you, then you are finished.

I rather like the idea but people need to be disciplined, rational thinking, self-sufficient, loyal, trust-worthy, honorable; no entitlement mentality, hard-workers, willing to sacrifice personal comforts/perks for community betterment.

If there were an abundance of people like that on the planet, we could just stay where we are and not have to move away. I wish you the best in your quest, though.

I'm sure that us city-slickers vastly underestimate how much work it would take to have a self-sufficient communal group, but it sure seems like a great idea nonetheless. Being 21 I don't know how I will be able to stand sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, for the next 40 years.... I wouldn't think twice about giving up all the money I have and my labour to farm, hunt, and build stuff for a living.

I don't want a small village or anything though, just a small group, maybe 5 families, 10 at most, that can pool together and get a fair-sized lot of land with a few houses on it out in the wilderness. I think all you would need is a small portion of your crop to sell to the public (or suppliment some other way), just enough to pay for the property tax.

I have gardening, fishing, camping experience, accounting/business degree (ok not so useful in this situation)... anybody "hiring"?

Originally posted by whitewave
"people need to be disciplined, rational thinking, self-sufficient, loyal, trust-worthy, honorable; no entitlement mentality, hard-workers, willing to sacrifice personal comforts/perks for community betterment".

heck! i cannot even get my family together and act rationally during christmas... where do you think you could meet people like this on a local level?

Originally posted by Yarcofin
" I wouldn't think twice about giving up all the money I have and my labour to farm, hunt, and build stuff for a living."

thats awesome! i feel the same way! it wont be long before we are forced to make a decision like this... maybe 15 yrs tops. or 2012

" maybe 5 families, 10 at most"

nice number.

" that can pool together and get a fair-sized lot of land with a few houses on it out in the wilderness."

i think ill need a crazy old man to will me a couple hundred acres... any takers?

"I have gardening, fishing, camping experience, accounting/business degree (ok not so useful in this situation)... anybody "hiring"? "

fill out an application and attach your resume', haha

I love the idea. Actually, I have been thinking on this for quite some time and have tried to set a goal to purchase 100 acres to do just that, but I don't think we'll have the time to see my goal come to fruition.

I have 6 acres in the mountains, but it's not enough. Plus I need to find others willing to help get this started. I have tried to even get my family involved and they just look at me like I'm crazy.

I too really like the idea and feel we will be forced to make this decision soon. As "salchanra" already mentioned, the Amish do this now even with modern society around them.

You will definately need at least one person that knows how to farm. Gardening is good but a true farmer will be invaluable to your community. You will also need to find a place to aquire manual farm equipment as you will most likely not be making enough money to fuel machinery. This will also make it easier in a SHTF scenario because you will not be relying on fuel to grow your food. Another must have is someone with carpentry experience that can fix things that break.

For land requirements, you will need pasture for animals, land for farming and a large chunk of woods for lumber and firewood. The size of this will be depending on how big the community is, but 100 acres may not be enough for 5 families. To have cattle and horses both you will need more than 100 acres. I would say your livestock's primary food supply will be grazing with minimal grain so you need a fairly large chunk of acreage for them. They say minimum of 1 acre per horse but in my experience they will graze that off easily and should have at least a couple of acres per horse. I would also dedicate at least a couple acres per cow too, meaning you will need a sizeable chunk of grazing land. You will also need a bare minimum of 30-50 acres of wooded area, because you are going to have 5 families drawing their firewood out of it. 100+ wooded acres would be best, as that would give you a larger population of wild game and less chance of any deforestation problems. Of course this is assuming you are in an area that has a fairly cold winter and I am now realizing I have drawn this conclusion and it may not be the case.

Hope this helps

My parents actually lived in a commune when I was a young child. My mom still gets a big smile on her face when she talks about it.

Yes, you'd need to fill certain roles such as "farmer" "mechanic" ect;

But all skills covered there is still the issue of getting along with your fellow humans. Even though I am very open to communal living I do not know if I could handle the stuff about YOU that makes you YOU. My partner thinks that it wouldn't matter so much in an envirnment where HARD work is the norm. If you've been waist deep in planting, picking, fixing, whatever you 'll be too tired to be a pain the ass.

As for a place in the States - No thanks.

If I had the funds I'd look towards the Southern hemisphere. I don't think one can truely live off the grid unless you go somewhere where there is no grid.

The make up of any group would be an issue for me as well. Would there be children? Couples? Single people? Imagine the drama which could ensue if you didn't have the right mix?

So yeah, communal living for the win, IF the combination of people and skills are correct. I think that would be hard to do.

The thing about communal living is that it's about the group not the individual. Communal/Communism - yeah same idea - Just as, in my opinion, Communism is a great idea, in practice people's "ME" mentality ruins it.

I've been thinking about this for sometime, I believe it will be the only way to survive in the future. I did a google search some time ago and came across this site. thevillagelife.googlepages.com... Not really sure what to make of it but this is kind of what I've been looking for.
Communal living is a natural way to live not sat in a house night after night with nobody to talk to and a tv to tell you what to think!

Originally posted by Cannonball Hermit

For land requirements, you will need pasture for animals, land for farming and a large chunk of woods for lumber and firewood. The size of this will be depending on how big the community is, but 100 acres may not be enough for 5 families. To have cattle and horses both you will need more than 100 acres. I would say your livestock's primary food supply will be grazing with minimal grain so you need a fairly large chunk of acreage for them. They say minimum of 1 acre per horse but in my experience they will graze that off easily and should have at least a couple of acres per horse. I would also dedicate at least a couple acres per cow too, meaning you will need a sizeable chunk of grazing land. You will also need a bare minimum of 30-50 acres of wooded area, because you are going to have 5 families drawing their firewood out of it. 100+ wooded acres would be best, as that would give you a larger population of wild game and less chance of any deforestation problems. Of course this is assuming you are in an area that has a fairly cold winter and I am now realizing I have drawn this conclusion and it may not be the case.

wowza! i didnt imagine it taking so much land; but, to keep grain expense to a minimum, grazing land would have to be in abumdance. maybe if you were to do away with cow and farm chicken and pig, you would need less space to graze and you would have more land to farm. im with you on the wooded parcel, it would have to be large for wood and game. as for the temp, it would have to be in the southeast or south america... once again, i would be happy to take any land donations so i can get this show on the road just kidding... or am i?

Originally posted by dreameruk
I've been thinking about this for sometime, I believe it will be the only way to survive in the future. I did a google search some time ago and came across this site. thevillagelife.googlepages.com... Not really sure what to make of it but this is kind of what I've been looking for.
Communal living is a natural way to live not sat in a house night after night with nobody to talk to and a tv to tell you what to think!

very interesting website!! although they state that if a friend wants to visit they would be met with a blindfold and a van with blacked out windows. who the hell is gunna get in that van?!? imagine that van in a walmart parking lot?? geez! sounds like a pedo-wagon! regardless, i would imagine that these people are very happy... or living in cages in the woods...
all joking aside, it looks to be a well established and working example of what i am looking for, congrats to the citizens of "the village"... sounds cool

Communal Living really isn't an answer, it's an acceptance. If we need to go down the route you envisage, no fertilisers or combines (you can argue they're oil powered anyway, though they could go renewable) then you have to accept that many many people will die. I hope that we get through our current difficulties if only for the sake of those people. Sadly, we're dependant in the main on political organisation and technology, they may have been good once but now they're taking away liberty and leaving us at the mercy of diminshing oil supplies.