Contribution
living by the principle & practice
of Love-In-Action
No one knows how much time any of us has here on the Earth; still, we do know our common desire is to do the things that matter. Most of us dream of doing something meaningful with our lives that contributes to making a positive impact and leaves the world a better place because we have lived.
For communitarians, contribution is an act of ‘everyday revolution’ that enriches the soil to ensure our actions bear good fruit, in the here and now, ‘where we are’. The principles and practice of conscious, deliberate, planned ‘contribution’ draws communitarians into the mindset and habit of ‘making every day count’ toward achieving the individual as well as collective mission of ushering in the era of perpetual peace through rising up the constructs of shared ‘common wealth’ provisioning of all that supports life, liberty and sustained security.
When we adopt the attitude that we are ‘all in this together’, the willingness to contribute the best of ourselves, rather than holding back, becomes the driving force of our activities that demonstrate practical ‘love-in-action’.
The communitarian principle and practice of ‘One Cloak’, requires the conscious effort to contribute to supporting life and liberty ‘beyond ourselves’ and ‘beyond our immediate communal union’. For these reasons, from the fifth year of association, and beyond, communitarians contribute their time, energies and talents to participate in ‘extension’ programs that support the duplication of projects which improve the lives of people, animals and planet.
Labours of Love
Voluntary ‘contribution’ is a vital component of the individual communitarian character as well as collective identity. Throughout the course of association, communitarians integrate ‘contribution’ into their everyday routine and planning to execute both personal and collaborative missions and projects that better the conditions of current and future generations.
The functional aspects of communal living and loving require a well-grounded attitude of ‘doing our fair share’, and then some. Through the mentoring guilds, communitarians transitioning into the ‘common purse’ economy, come to understand that gaining the respect, trust and acceptance of fellow members of the unions, is in no way shape or form automatic, nor a rite of passage.
On the contrary, demonstrating willingness to consistently carryout assigned domestic as well as provisioning tasks with a cheerful attitude as well as an honest reliable work ethic that contributes to achieving high standards of cleanliness and efficient productivity, coupled to responsible stewardship of machinery, equipment, resources and facilities; is the only legitimate way to germinate genuine love and friendship within the hearts and minds of those aligned with the goal of shared living and loving.
Anything less will not sustain integration, or long-term functional relationships.
Contributing to demonstrating ways & means of Sharing All with All
Throughout the world, sharing is increasingly recognized as the key factor in addressing many of the social, environmental and economic problems faced by people and planet. Everywhere, in developed as well as countries lacking adequate infrastructure and viable economic production and distribution of life-supporting goods and services, are adopting the practice of coming together to establish cooperative living and livelihood projects.
Through organising our lives around sharing everything from meals to accommodation and domestic facilities including kitchens & laundries, furniture, household tools and equipment such as lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners; along with vehicles; and even our skills, time and talent, communitarians build strong enduring relationships with others, consume less, waste less and save time and money.
Adopting a shared ‘common purse’ lifestyle contributes to increasing the efficient use of resources through elimination of duplicates of commonly used household appliances and vehicles, as well as, puts to better use underutilised facilities and equipment for the benefit of many others. In essence, communal union – sharing all with all, reduces emissions, improves efficiency, decreases waste and uplifts talent while also conserving and improving ecosystems.
Sharing the good things we are blessed with, uplifts everyone. Be it a cheerful disposition, a ready smile or an inspiring book or article, sharing these simple free gifts makes a positive impact on those closest to us, while also lifting our own spirit. There is also ample evidence that those who have a generous disposition, are happier and more content than those who neglect to cultivate this part of their character.
There are abundant rewards to harvest through contributing to society by sharing the good in our lives. It seems the law of nature that what we give, returns to us 10-fold.
Contributing to revitalizing a natural way of Life through reconnecting to shared Living
If we look, we will see that the age-old practice of sharing is being revived on a mass scale across the globe. People from all age ranges and socio-economic as well as educational advantage and disadvantage, are re-learning and re-inventing ways to share in order to address the myriad of 21st century, social, economic and environmental crises. Sharing is no longer deemed primitive behaviour only suitable for traditional societies to continue.
In separatist societies where for the past 4 decades people have come to accept that it is right and fitting to not bother to know their neighbours. However, attitudes are changing. Through the force of isolation, lack of adequate economic means, health issues, along with concern for the environment, people from both urban and rural areas are realising that living only for themselves, is neither socially or economically sustainable. Still, the path to move from separatism to unity is not clear to the majority who see that change is necessary – even inescapable.
However all is not lost. Significant momentum is gathering by way of the first ‘responders’ making over their hearts and minds to return to a natural way of living and loving through reaching out, creating new friendships and along with it, a new way of life. The driving force within communitarian friendship circles to come together to design new systems of production and distribution of food, clothing, accommodation, transport, healthcare, education and trade-training, child-rearing and even recreation and travel, is the awareness that sharing is the most natural design of human relationship with each other, as well as, animals and the planet.
Communitarians recognise that ‘sharing all with all’ is the only way forward. The sooner we start, the sooner our lives improve through willingness to contribute to practical demonstrations of social, economic and environmental transformation that creates fairer, saner and sustainable living conditions for current and future generations.
Via the translation of old books and new, along with the publication of academic research on the internet, a wealth of evidence has emerged that proves human beings are hardwired to cooperate and share. Both the revival of old knowledge, along with the new, is undoubtedly motivating those with a well-developed social as well as environmental conscience to align their local, regional and wider-world social relations and economic base with the evolved principles and practices found within these valuable texts and statistical studies.
Gustav Landauer’s, ‘Revolution and Other Writings’, along with Charles F Dole’s ‘The Coming People’, and Raoul Vaneigem’s ‘The Revolution of Everyday Life’, challenges the widely broadcast assertions that people are inherently selfish and individualistic by nature. These assumptions have long been used to justify inequitable access to all that supports life, liberty and happiness. While self-interest and greed may be long-held views of the negative-ingrained traits of human nature; nonetheless, the resurgence of academic as well as public interest in combining forces to contribute to designing and implementing new systems for sharing, conserving and responsibly utilizing both society’s and nature’s resources, grows daily.
All across the globe, young and old from every continent are rising up, coming together to contribute their time, talent and resources to reintroduce ‘sharing’ as the principal concept to guide SHARE-based unions through the urgent process of demonstrating the ways and means of eco-social and ‘common wealth’ economic rehabilitation and transformation.
Contributing to seeding evolved social, economic & ecological principles & practices throughout the world
Seeding the principles and practices of ‘common wealth’ communal union within vegan overseas student and migrant communities, provides massive returns on investments of time, energy and resources. Disseminating information and providing opportunities for individuals from other countries to participate in communal union, achieves far greater sustainable harvests and outcomes than boarding ships to sail to foreign lands to disseminate the tenets of ‘common wealth’ shared living and right livelihood projects.
Through these valuable local outreach activities, language as well as cultural barriers can be completely obliterated, leaving the global stage wide open for foreign students and migrants returning home to ‘seed’ the establishment of unions sharing all with all within their local cities, towns and rural regions. Those who have established relationships and are thereby trusted, have a far greater chance of being given the respect needed to be truly heard.
In contrast, those who are outsiders, imposing foreign concepts on people before establishing trust, have little chance of being taken seriously. Not knowing the customs or accepted social etiquette is a huge barrier to forming enduring relationships.
From this perspective, the local communitarian unions that design and implement outreach projects that cater for the needs of overseas university students, together with migrants, should greatly value both social media posting and contacts as well as hosting meet-up events as valuable contributions likely to result in casting the seeds of cooperative union abroad to the far flung reaches of the earth.
Contributing to Programs that help people help themselves
Those progressing towards roles that facilitate personal and group development, for their own sake as well as the sake of fellow ‘actors’, should test that they are thoroughly rooted in the understanding that ‘helping people’ – doing for them instead of allowing them to do for themselves, will result in dependency rather than growth that leads to independence. In the majority of cases, people seeking aid, whether physical, material or emotional, will be better served by facilitating ways for them to participate in collaborative action to help themselves and their extended communities.
Established communitarian unions can achieve these ends by offering cooperative project planning skills workshops, along with mentoring; and then getting out of the way, allowing people to stand on their own two feet to gain mastery of life and livelihood skills, through direct experience. If people fail; picking themselves up, dusting themselves off and learning from their mistakes, will achieve far more than stepping into rescue anyone. Through this method and mode of helping people help themselves, communitarian unions contribute to the seeding of people’s independence while also leading others out of dire straits.
As an example: communitarian unions that have achieved the establishment of well-developed communal living and eco-aligned collaborative livelihood projects, can offer their fellow associates that constantly suffer food insecurity; assistance to collectivise – pool their funds, machinery, tools and equipment as well as labour, to establish a collectively-acquired ‘commons’ permanent agriculture plot that achieves a secure means of feeding as well as skilling those who contribute to the project.
These types of ‘helping hand’ outreach projects can be offered in conjunction with ‘in-house’ participatory common purse provisioning governance skills workshops. These knowledge base and hands-on experiential participation sessions need not be a separate offering, as novices will benefit greatly by witnessing firsthand, the processes of collaborative direct decision-making, together with resource allocation and project planning.
Offering Hospitality to contribute
to the welfare & happiness of others
Communitarians devote considerable time and effort to maintaining a high-level of hygiene and functional order within their personal as well as communal living facilities to be ready, willing and able to ‘offer’ hospitality to others at a moment’s notice. Being ready, willing and able to invite someone into our personal space to share food, a book, or conversation as well as enthusiasm for a specific project, is an important aspect of communal life. Cleaning and organising our personal space and co-living facilities to accommodate visitors, is an essential component of ‘Love-in-action’.
Trust, understanding and respect are the cornerstones of enduring relationships. It is only through spending time with others; sharing a meal, discussing topics and insights, that ‘deep’ abiding union is cultivated.
In contrast, keeping people at a distance – failing to open our doors and invite others inside, will never create enduring bonds that make people feel comfortable and valued. Offering visitors, a drink, a chair, the use of the bathroom, a simple snack or meal, shade and shelter from the hot sun or cold winter winds, will always align hearts and minds to the benefits of sharing the world with all.
Sharing Skills & Knowledge
In accordance with ‘common wealth’ shared economy principles and practices, communitarians do not provide direct charity. The unions are not set-up to apply band-aids to deep-seated dysfunctional state and nationally controlled unregulated, secular economies which inherently manifest cycles of boom and bust economic lack and deprivations of necessary life-supports.
Accordingly, the local regionally and globally networked common wealth unions are not, not-for-profits. Instead, the unions are set up as functional SHARE-based enterprises, collectively committed to treating the roots of poverty, rather than its symptoms. Aligned with this approach, communitarians devote their time, energy and resources to providing skills training to help those ready, willing and able to participate in cooperative living and livelihood projects that have the proven capacity to sustainably ‘extract themselves and others’, once and for all time, from the clutches of poverty.
For these reasons, the communitarian unions focus outreach efforts on providing production and distribution skills training as well as foundational education to adults and adolescents, previously denied access to a level of functional literacy and numeracy education. The central aim of the network of unions education and vocational skills training is to support each and every communitarian to participate to the best of their ability, in collectively deciding what to produce, who will produce and how to distribute the results of their combined labour.
Training is delivered in a hands-on workplace context, supplied via the contributions of communitarians actively engaged in these areas of practical life. Concurrently, those appointed to direct teaching positions as well as contributors to education and training committees, adhere to the standards and guidelines pertaining to their roles that involves continuous learning, and thus skill improvement.
Education supports valuable modes of advancement in society. Without the giving and receiving of knowledge and skills, the world would remain in a primitive chaotic state. The sharing of knowledge and skills helps both the learner and those who willingly transfer their skills to improve the quality of their lives as well as participate in life-long learning that results in both personal and social development.
Communitarians go by the motto that when one achieves, all benefit from efforts and attainments.
Contributing to conservation & restoration of Land & Sea
The communitarian lifestyle and love-style is founded on responsible stewardship of the Earth’s resources that includes dedication to preserving and restoring the natural eco-systems of land and sea.
