Communities #207
Summer 2025
Note: You can order a copy of this issue here.
Communities #207, Summer 2025, Breaking the Spell, explores ways that communitarians are challenging and finding alternatives to thought patterns, lifeways, and habits of relating that keep us from realizing our cooperative potential and risk sleepwalking us off of metaphorical cliffs. Two reflections on Hurricane Helene unveil some of the storm’s many lessons; stories profile intentional communities that serve the wider world and act as agents of change as they question car culture, dwelling size and style, and ecophobia; we examine how the dominant society impacts cooperative efforts, as well as groups’ power (sometimes embraced, sometimes not) to engage in solidarity work, racial equity work, and cultural reinvention; authors look at how to navigate polarization, channel fear usefully, and prepare effectively for a post-collapse economy. We also continue our remembrances of Laird Schaub, whose contributions to the communities movement involved confronting many illusions and misconceptions head-on and empowering others to do the same.
Notes from the Editor: Simmering, Boiling Over, and Spouting Off by Chris Roth
A biophilic communitarian cooks up a soapbox screed for the AIges.
The Day the Storm Broke the Spell by Marissa Percoco
What I witnessed in the wake of Helene helped me understand that at the heart of it all, humans are mostly beautiful and loyal creatures, who will rise up and defend each other when threatened, in this case by nature.
Apocalypse of the Familiar: Can Awareness Break the Spell? by Cara Judea Alhadeff, PhD
Did I prepare Zazu for this? Did my “extremism,” our radically unconventional lifestyle prepare him to land unexpectedly smack in the middle of an “unprecedented tragedy,” “the site of biblical devastation”?
Catalysts, Not Bubbles: How Intentional Communities Enrich Society by Savannah Fishel
My experience of visiting over 50 communal living models has shown them to be not self-interested isolated enclaves, but instead engines of change.
Dancing Rabbit and US Car Culture by Rachel Freifelder
One “interested” person who sent an email seemed to be angry at us for wanting to free ourselves from the car culture. “When you grow up…have kids…get real jobs…” were part of his message.
Do You Really Need All That Space? Tiny Houses as Appropriate Technology by Murphy Robinson
What could be more relaxing than an affordable tiny home that costs very little to maintain? And what could be more UNCOMFORTABLE than a 30-year mortgage?
Noticing Our More-than-Human Worlds by Clémentine Fraunié Mouillaud
Toads love to hunt by the compost at night. Swallows keep to the bottom of the valley, while chaffinches live everywhere. A chili’s roots poking out of the pot indicate it is time for transplanting.
Downstream of America by Colin Doyle
The bigger the gap between modern society’s patterns and what actually works, the more junk we in community inherit to deal with, either echoing that wider culture or reacting too strongly against it.
Community as Resistance by Yana Ludwig
Right now, the majority of our country is in crisis, and intentional communities have so much to offer, even in spite of our internal and personal struggles. People organizing in solidarity can have a huge impact.
Racial Equity Work in Communities by Joe Cole
How deeply are intentional communities in the United States engaged in addressing and healing the ongoing reality of racism in our society, our neighborhoods, and our groups?
Breaking the Spell: Cohousing, Arts, and the Challenge of Consensus by Alan O’Hashi
Many hope that a smaller, consensus-driven group can provide a sanctuary from the chaos beyond its borders. But what happens when the same cultural spells that fracture the outside world seep into our communal spaces?
Transformative Engagement: Navigating Polarization with Purpose by Jennifer Jaylyn Morgan
The concept of sphere of influence is particularly relevant for individuals who often feel powerless in the face of larger systemic issues, highlighting areas where they can effect change within personal, cultural, and system-wide contexts.
Without Conscious Fear, We Get Nowhere by Ewa Szczepaniak
Rejecting fear has a price. We pay with the loss of the opportunity to say what is important to us, to do what is to be done, to stand for our values, to create close, intimate relationships, to live on a planet full of natural wealth.
Restoring Ecological Resources by Kara Huntermoon
Climate change is not just carbon in the atmosphere, it is degraded ecosystems—something you can see, touch, and directly impact. We need to focus on increasing the resources in our ecosystems so we have something on which to base our post-collapse economy.
● September (poem)
Remembering Laird, Part Two by Chris Roth, Lois Arkin, Becky Gooding Laskody, Mac Thomson, Joel Bartlett, Leslie O’Neil, Marty Maskall, Deborah Altus, Tim Miller, Brent Levin, Diana Leafe Christian, Ann Shrader, Marty Klaif, Carol Swann, Yana Ludwig, Penny Sirota, Harvey Baker, Jo Sandhill, Cynthia Tina, Daniel Greenberg, Kim Kanney
In the words of his daughter, Jo, Laird Schaub “broke a lot of spells. Or maybe more accurately, he cracked a lot of spells and offered people his hand to step through the crack, each time widening it and weakening the spell.”
REACH
News from FIC, GEN’s 30th Anniversary