BestWeCanDo

“make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone”.

Keywords: Intentional Community, Coworking, Cohousing, Utopia, Altruism, Transhumanism, Gaia, Hackerspace, DIY-bio, Startup, Couchsurfing, NomadHub, Anarchy, Squatting, Eco-city, Hacker Island, Geodome, Sovereignty, Hippie Commune, Tribe, Social Experiment, Gift economy, Autonomy, Freedom, Sustainable, Self-sufficiency

There are many problems with the world. We think that most human societies today are going in the wrong direction. People are forced into working on things they don't care about for pay cheques. ¹⁾ Isolation and lack of community, education systems setup only to make children pass exams and get 'good jobs'. Capitalism. Consumerism. Greed. Profit Motive. Ecological damage. Wars. Police states. Lack of individual freedom. Violations of basic human rights. TV-celebrity worship. etc etc..

But how can we make things better?

Why not create our own new place where we try to do things right?

So our priority is setting up a commune where we can live and work in the same space, and explore new ways of living / sharing / working together. With an emphasis on promoting/maximising things like: Freedom. Progress. Technology. Equality. Sharing. Caring. Reasoning. Rationality. Tolerance. Selflessness. Wisdom. Love. Peace.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― Richard Buckminster Fuller

As well as giving us control over our immediate environment, and allowing us to actually make the changes we want to see, there is a second important reason we think the commune needs to be a priority. Being in the same space allows us to work together much more efficiently on problems. (sure, it's possible to collaborate online, but we feel this isn't good enough).

So the plan is to get some cool people together, pick a location, and go there. After we've made landfall, the next phase will be to ensure that the space/community can survive long-term. Probably the best chance we have is to try and make money with software/hardware/techie projects (selling our brain power), although we'll also be looking at many other options (see FAQ). (you certainly don't have to be a programmer/hacker/techie to come and live with us).

Being totally self sufficient is a long term aim, but we don't want to spend the bulk of our time farming, so we accept total self sufficiency is probably unrealistic in the near future. Sovereignty, of course, also appeals to us, but again this is tricky, so we're not going to worry too much about it in the near-term.

One problem we have when trying to write about this project is that text never seems to express exactly who we are and what we're doing. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to make a video. Perhaps it can provide information that is impossible to get across with text alone.

.VIDEO GOES HERE.

Hopefully the video, and looking around this wiki will give you some impression of what we're about. If you think you might be on the same wavelength - talk to us.

We're looking for people that are prepared to move to a new location with us and work to make this thing a reality. Nothing is set in stone yet. We'd love to hear your thoughts/ideas. We'll do whatever you want as long as we think it's good/cool. We can't exactly define what we will think is good/cool but the video and looking around this wiki should give you some idea.

A lot of this text says 'we think this', 'we'll do that', but when you join us, we'll change our minds. That is to say; you don't have to agree all our ideas are good. You just have to think 'Maybe I like these people, maybe they have some ability to help me live the way I want'.

Send an email to our mailing list to talk to all of us: bestwecando@lists.riseup.net. (subscribe) (Email_List) Or, if you prefer, talk to an individual member (look at the links on the left). (If you like the idea/sound of the project, but you don't feel ready to move, you're still very welcome to talk to us).

We look forward to hearing from you.

It probably hasn't been decided yet. Sure, we have opinions / ideas / feelings on most things, but we're trying to remain open minded at this stage. Talk to us! Ask us!

We haven't decided yet. The words are just to give you some clue about lines we might be thinking along. Talk to us! We realise that words can be traps, so we're cautious about applying them to our thing. Sometimes we prefer just to say 'be cool. be good. don't be uncool. don't be bad'.

Undecided. We tend more towards anarchy. We may or may not try to write a constitution. (what do you think?). We're kind of hoping that if we get cool people, things will just work spontaneously without the need for long lists of explicit rules. Are humans capable of this?

We're considering all options at the moment. We might squat abandoned buildings and eat from dumpsters. (Although ideally we'd like somewhere with more security, where we can build something permanent and sustainable). We might merge with groups that already have land and build earthships from recycled materials. We might… farm, brew beer and open a bar/nightclub… make and sell furniture… make and sell software. Any way we can harness our creativity in order to build the things we want. Perhaps we'll meet people that open up new options. Anything as long as it's ethical.

Could be anywhere. Our general feeling at the moment is that we would like to get away from places with evil governments, and forces that might try to interfere with us. Where would you like to live?

All funds go back into the community. Nobody will take a private salary or anything like that.

Tricky question. Maybe, but we want this to be much more than just cohousing.

Nope. Everyone is useful. It helps if you're passionate about something, anything!

No.

We don't care who does the work, as long as the work gets done. Obviously we'll find it hard to tolerate extreme violent/abusive behaviour, but we're pretty chilled about most things.

At least 7. No upper limit. We hope we'll have plenty of space, so that there won't be any restrictions on numbers.

We don't have a name.

Because you're not going to let that happen. If it goes wrong, we'll learn from our mistakes and start over again. We are certain that living like this is of critical importance, we won't give up or tolerate anything less. Of course, it's the people involved that will make or break this project. If we're a bunch of dull, narrow-minded, petty, egotistical people - we will fail. If we're a team of passionate, caring, enlightened, rational friends… it might work.

ASAP. When we get a good group of 7 or more and we feel comfortable about a location.

Maybe it is a bit reckless. We feel that if we get a team of smart, passionate friends together in one room, we can use our brains to make this work somehow. The synergy of being together in one space will allow us to do something much better than we could do just by collaborating online. We understand that many people will find this plan 'too risky'. Anyone joining us will probably need a strong sense of adventure, and the imagination to believe it can work. An important point is that we will all vow to stick together. Nobody will be abandoned. We will all succeed or fail together as a group/team/tribe/family. If the first step is successful, and the project has some more security, perhaps the more cautious types will consider joining us later.