Sharing Bit by Bit

by Raven

This is a blog devoted to income-sharing communities, and by extension, to income-sharing and to sharing in general, and to community living, which always, by its very nature, involves at least some degree of sharing.

I have been reading a lot about individualism lately, which runs very strong in American culture.  Each of us should be able to make it on our own. Developmentally this is important, because I believe that independence is a critical stage as we move from dependence to interdependence, but truthfully, no one makes it on their own.  Interdependence is a key feature of community living, since each of us has our own strengths and weak points and these differ from person to person.  One of the big advantages of community living is that in a community, each of us get to operate from the positions of our strengths, knowing that other people can support us where we are not strong, just as we support others where they have difficulties.  Together, we are much, much stronger than any of us is individually.

Is this sharing?  I strongly believe it is.  We get to share our strengths and we also get to share in other folks strengths, making it a lot less necessary for us to try to do everything.  Because we really can’t do everything.

What else can we share and do we share in community and elsewhere?  There are lots of possibilities, beginning with resource sharing of all kinds.  I’ve already written here about networks of “libraries” and mutual aid and gift economies.  

My point is that we don’t have to share everything and we certainly don’t need to start out by sharing everything.  Even Twin Oaks, which seems based on radical sharing, has ways to opt in and out of sharing, public and private options.  And some of us have been discussing (a discussion I’ve had with several folks over the years) the idea of doing income-sharing between houses, perhaps set distances apart.  Although my biggest dream is to live with lots of people, you don’t actually have to live communally to share income.

Which is my point.  While I’m all for income-sharing and radical sharing, we can create a society that’s based on sharing, bit by bit.  Each little bit of sharing moves us stronger in the direction of a more sharing centered society.  And, as I think I’ve said here, as much as I’m into income-sharing communities, I don’t think they work for everyone.   What I want to see is a variety of alternatives, a whole bunch of ways of sharing and working together, and I think that the only way to create that is by sharing, bit by bit.