COMMUNITY LIVING ?

[greenstiles]

Like a lot of people from time to time, i feel like bucking the system and feel like i'd like to live differently...............but it seems to me that most of there ' community living ' projects are for people who have achieved a fair degree on monetary success (or their) parents have ! ) ...........is this really the only way to live away from the system......to have actually used the system 1st them decide to step sideways away from it and effectively ' play communties ' via the money you have already accumulated..............i used to live nr Machynlleth (C.A.T centre ) so have mixed with many alturnative types WHO always seemed to have money and just dress scruffy or their parents were rich.......................

What if you don't own property or come from a comfortable backgroud ?

Are my only choices either to become some kind of forest tramp (met a few of them, but hey, maybe they had a big house to go back to in winter) or to become a tiresome sofa surfa ?

Tried the religious cult thing years back.......don't think i could do that again........


ANY idea's on what alternative / community living..........i quite fancy a change

Here's 1 example of the adds out there.
http://www.cotswoldcohousing.co.uk/

 

[paininthe]

I had a look at this some time ago - it's all a bit of a no go. To sustain a family the land required is to large to be workable by a family. You have got look at co-ops and if you haven't assembled it your self you are stuck with others already settled. Then there is skill sharing ok if balanced but an interior designer is not something you would particularly need in your Scottish croft.

 

[IDB1]

There was a chap on May The Best House Win (shaking head smiley required) recently who lived in a barn.. not converted, just an old barn.

His shower was a bucket from the rafters and a watering can rose. He cooked on an open fire in the yard

The bed was a double li-lo and the rest of the furniture was cut from local trees by the look of it..

He lived like a drop-out but didn't dress like a tramp, as far as I could gather from the prog, held down a day job too...

Problem with dropping out and into a religion (in my experience) is that the life is very austere and you don't live your own life, you live theirs..

 

[barry2017]

These things are always alright until people get involved.

I have spent the last seven years living on a boat; that's a bit of an alternative community. It's cheap, but you still need to do something. I think going much further (opting out of the "system") is complete nonsense, unless you have a huge amount of money. Plus it makes you become a bit of a knob eventually.

 

[gibbleking]

These things are always alright until people get involved.

I have spent the last seven years living on a boat; that's a bit of an alternative community. It's cheap, but you still need to do something. I think going much further (opting out of the "system") is complete nonsense, unless you have a huge amount of money. Plus it makes you become a bit of a knob eventually.

id love to live on a boat somewhere or a small house in the forests away from scumbag neighbours who spend their whole weekemd hurling abuse at the kids and the wife because he felt like it..

 

[TheGreenRabbit]

Tried it, you have to buy into the belife system that goes along with this, best to get a copy of 'Diggers and dreamers'

 

[passiflora]

community living usually means shitting in a bucket!.

 

[Lysander]

Surely not- I'm positive you could use a basin or a vase some days for variety..........

 

[silverclaws]

All it takes is money, for if you have money you can have land, if you haven't got money, you are not what society wants, you become scum, something to be intolerated and driven to fall back in line. Remember operation solstice in 1985;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3YtmBD_thM

or for the rawer version courtesy of The Levellers ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqE3SqSpT50

Just people trying to dip out of society and live their own way.

But,from my observations and inquiries into this subject, one can join the alternative co operatives, if one has the money to buy in and the skills to contribute, but for a change money doesn't talk as admittance goes to vote.

The only way I can see one can live an alternative existence is by boat and with that, the sea, estuaries and the like unless one can afford marinas, which many can't, so it's get used to mud, the launderette, dripping condensation and a small living space.

Myself being by the sea, I know plenty of people living by boat, and it is not so much of a choice, but all they can afford giving the high cost of housing.

This country is well and truly sewn up, all avenues are gated, if you have'nt got money and you want an alternative lifestyle, go abroad, this country sucks for the free thinkers.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Not so.

There are many so called alternative communities open to new members with no financial means.

A lot of them only ask you to get involved and commit until they have a vacancy.

Many offer working holidays, etc. so you can at least get a break.

I live not far from Findhorn, pretty involved with things there.

I have lived in several communes and was also living with the Peace Convoy around 1984.

Being honest, a lot of total arseholes attached themselves to the travelling community around that time. The Brew Crew and all the wasters who were violent drunks and all the other Anarcho idiots.

Ruined for the hippies I counted myself amongst, although I was a punk/indie player.

Thatcher was behind all that confrontation.

I loved in squats with a lot of people who had country piles to go home to when the shit hit the fan.

But there are genuine communal living opportunities out there, and if Diggers and Dreamers is anything near as useful as it was to me then I heartily recommend checking it out.

http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/index.php?one=pub&two=pub