Building Community – #SolutionsWatch

by | Feb 15, 2023 | Solutions Watch, Videos | 87 comments

The PTSB are trying to keep us apart. Divided. Alone in the urban jungle. And so, building community is a way to fight back by constructing something new . . . But no one said building a community is easy. Join James today as he looks at The Conscious Agora and other examples of people coming together to create a better world.

Watch on Archive / BitChute Odysee / Rokfin Rumble / Substack  / Download the mp4

SHOW NOTES:

Walden quotation

Episode 436 – Opting Out of CBDCs

Episode 394 – Solutions: Survival Currency

Episode 146 – Lessons in Resistance: Building Communities

Interview 1011 – Thomas Freedman on Creating a Community Organization

Creating a Life Together-Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities 

The Conscious Agora website

The Conscious Agora fundrazr

Free Zone with Freeman – September 11, 2010

87 Comments

  1. The reason I’m not really drawn to “conscious communities” or whatever you want to call them, is that they can become to ridged and joyless, at least for a non-conformist soul like me. Not sure about communities that require ‘hard work’ to get off the ground (with a 90% failure rate). Perhaps the best communities are the ones that grow organically, so to speak. I’m quite content doing my own permaculture thing on my land in the country. If some good people drift by and what to get involved, cool. If not, that’s okay too.

    • cymro

      “…I’m not really drawn to “conscious communities”..at least for a non-conformist soul like me…”

      This is the reason that the idea of TOTAL Personal Freedom is a weapon used by the Elite to create a serf class of people who are unable to act against them or prevent them from doing whatever evil they feel like doing.

      This is a culture wide problem that will eventually solve itself because its ultimately as unsustainable under the assault by the Total State as the life of Plains Indians in the face of mechanized civilization.

      This is a kinda cool talk on the “Open Society”
      https://odysee.com/@Luke:7/popper,-soros-and-the-open-society:b

    • Completely agree with you that these groups have a tendency to become too “rigid” in their focus. In the last few years I’ve tried 2 different groups. The first was more of a defense group that was designed to put community members together to help sustain each other during difficult times. I waited patiently to meet someone in my neck of the woods and it never happened. After spending more than a year on this online group, the leader who was absolutely brilliant, shut the group down without explanation.

      The second group was with the Freedom Cells. Sounded like a wonderful idea at first. The problem here was stringency for sure. The sole focus of this group is to “build and exit.” Heaven forbid you might bring up politics on their Telegram group as you would instantaneously get their mission statement about building and exiting the existing system. My question is how do you really exit a system when you’re obligated to do such things such as pay property taxes, etc.?

      Moreover, the people in the Freedom Cells group were a little young for my liking. There is a generational gap involved in finding those like-minded people. With all that said, I do agree that it’s best to grow these types of groups organically, especially if you can do so in your immediate community. As much as I do not want to be without community support, I am totally prepared to go at it alone for as long as possible. Definitely not my first choice, but like cymro says,” If some good people drift by and want to get involved, cool. If not, that’s okay too.”

      And to Mr. Corbett, please know that I appreciate your work more than you can ever know, so thank you for all that you do.

  2. I am going to be a stickler here. I speak a few languages and I do not speak acronym.

    There used to be an international convention of defining an acronym at least once in an article before using the abbreviation.

    This is a practice that has just been lost in North American reporting.

    But beyond being a simple annoyance, it’s actually relevant to community building.

    The ego is developed with language, and particularly the word “I”.
    Language then becomes the most common denominator of a culture, which is a collective ego, “we”.

    A community is a sub-culture, not only brought together by a common language, but by a common sub-language/ “dialect.” A complicity. A vernacular of values.

    The best communities are built on egoless practices, and egoless rules. This may sound too idealistic, but practicing disidentification is essential to our survival as a species today, because the ego has lead us all into a myriad of collective suicides.

    The ego is crashing and burning as we speak, collectively, and individually. It is time to look to what has no beginning and no end.

    • “…I speak a few languages and I do not speak acronym….”

      Maybe this could help you? LOL 🙂

      I liked these best
      https://abbreviations.yourdictionary.com/articles/funny-acronyms.html

      WIFE – Worries Invited For Ever (or Wise Investment Flourishing Eternally)
      BOOK – Brainy Object Of Knowledge
      MATH – Mental Abuse To Humans

      ‘Acronym’- A Contrived Reduction Of Nouns, Yielding Mnemonics

    • @Prajna-Paramita

      Those are some very interesting concepts you presented regarding the relationship between ego and modern language and the connection between language and how it influences culture, community and societies.

      Are you familiar with Robin Wall Kimmerer’s writing about what she calls “The Grammar of Animacy”? (here is an audio book sample from “Braiding Sweetgrass” which touches on the concept) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEBErBoPuTg&list=PLfls6OzMkf8KwDszavfbXJWbB4JnTpttT&index=6

      How would you describe the concepts she is speaking about in the context of “The ego (being) developed with language, and particularly the word “I”.. ” ?

      Reading your closing statement “??? ??? ?? ???????? ??? ??????? ?? ?? ?????, ????????????, ??? ????????????. ?? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ???? ??? ?? ????????? ??? ?? ???.” gave me goosebumps and resonates within my heart as true.

      The world eating machine that is the corporatocracy is indeed born of the mechanistic worldview/ego and it will indeed crash and burn. If we first find sturdy footing in nurturing a direct awareness of the eternal spark that exists within us and then allow that spark to guide our actions outwardly, then communities we plant seeds for will be capable of breaking the cycle of ego/fear and surviving the crash and burn of this human civilization driven by ego.

      Thanks for the comment.

      • Wow. Just found this. It’s beautiful.

        • @Prajna-Paramita

          I am glad that part of the book resonates with you. 🙂

          Thanks for the comments.

    • @Prajna-Paramita

      Here is another excerpt from a different book I am reading that speaks to the power of language in influencing how we perceive and interact with the world around us (and the other beings we share it with).

      https://archive.org/details/screenshot-1297

      The book is called Bright Green Lies (by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith and Max Wilbert).

      Now that I think about it, the way the book takes a huge step back to look at the rise of cities and modern agriculture (throughout the span of centuries) it is really an exploration of the direct results of what happens when a civilization is driven by the ego.

    • @Prajna-Paramita

      Here is another article I just stumbled across that speaks to the need to re-imagine or adapt our language to reflect that animate nature of the more than human world. Again, I am not sure if this aligns with what you were saying about the ego being developed by language but it feels like it is connected to me.

      I am not really a fan of the title of the article as it seems to have a woke-ism propaganda flavored kinda vibe, but the message in the actual article rings true for me.

      https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/together-earth/2015/03/30/alternative-grammar-a-new-language-of-kinship

      What do you think?

      • I think language is spoken and can only be heard by the ego. It’s all part of “the Tonal.”

        So changing pronouns won’t necessarily do much besides pointing the egos that hear them in the right direction maybe.

        I’m afraid the elephants, the ladybugs and the orchids won’t mind if I use the wrong pronoun when talking about them. I do think it will bother all other religions and authorities though. So of course, I’d relish in that.

        But more than new pronouns, I believe it’s time for everyone to leave the safety of the Tonal and to begin exploring the Nagual.

        • @Prajna-Paramita

          Thanks for sharing your thoughts and clarifying what you meant in reference to the ego and language.

          Given the current artificially induced societal atmosphere and propaganda campaigns being pushed by government and oligarchs regarding blurring genders and pushing the whole gender-pronoun, non binary nonsense I feel it is worth emphasizing the fact that what Robin Wall Kimmerer was talking about has nothing to do with gender and rather is based on how the language spoken by her ancestors was structured in a way in which it acknowledged all beings as animate (rather than being labelled as inanimate via the term “it”).

          I feel it is also worth pointing out that based on what I understood from what she was talking about in Braiding Sweetgrass the suggestion to use different language has nothing to do with whether or not the plants or other non-human beings minded what they were being referred to as, but rather, it was about the effect that using specific language has on our human psychology (shaping what value and/or degree of respect we should have for our fellow beings).

          For me, I have always referred to my fellow beings as living and animate (whether or not I said him or her was not really relevant) the point was (and is) that I am acknowledging that the being I am speaking of is alive, has a spirit and is deserving of respect just like any other being (human or not).

          Thanks for the comments on the Tonal vs the Nagual, I am unfamiliar with those concepts and will have to get back to you on that.

  3. Where can I get a No Rulers hoodie?!!!

  4. The comments made by Cymro and Prajna-Paramita are interesting to me. I really really love James Corbett’s work and also love listening to Freeman Fly. They both benefit me greatly. I am totally not bored by them. It’s very helpful for me to be in their presence.

  5. Nice episode, James.

    About a year ago I moved from California to a fairly rural part of a deeply conservative state. In that state there are lots of people that value individual liberty and are willing to fight for it. There are also lots of people who understand the trouble we are in, and want to build community to do something about it. I have been able to form community quickly in this area, and the ideas from the computer screen have come to life.

    To me, this is the first step. Go somewhere that already has the foundational pieces necessary to build community. Rural, conservative areas have the ingredients necessary to quickly form meaningful community. The people in those areas value hard work, doing things yourself, not relying on the government, etc. I think you will find it difficult to build a strong community in some concrete jungle, where the people that live there, by the very fact that they are living there, are more disconnected from the values I mentioned above. Build on a strong foundation that already exists.

    • scpat

      “…I think you will find it difficult to build a strong community in some concrete jungle, where the people that live there, by the very fact that they are living there, are more disconnected from the values I mentioned above. …”

      I do not think its rural vs urban as much as HOW the Urban has been deliberately set up to stop people forming communities.

      I have not read this book, but Dr Jones has spoken about it a few times that I’ve heard.
      https://www.fidelitypress.org/book-products/the-slaughter-of-cities

      He says that before the use of weaponized Internal Migration and Urban Planning were used to break up the Ethnic and Catholic neighborhoods in the major US cities.

      These areas were full of people who DID share values and group loyalty and generated massive, (and at that time Growing) political power. The aim, he says, was to these ethnic folks out into the suburbs where they became generic ‘white people’ and almost totally unable to act as a political unit.

      Before being turned into generic ‘white people’ Catholics could boycott Hollywood into adopting the Production Code…. where as nowadays, what was the last thing they boycotted into submission….? Normal people cant even stop Netflix and Disney pedaling filth

    • I’ve never described myself as conservative. I wouldn’t now. The paradigm is on its head and inside for me after four years of a journey towards self-sufficiency in the face of 4IR.
      I wrote about it here: https://walkingwithgoats.substack.com/p/the-value-of-living-crisis
      We need to learn from the voices of generations of rural survivors; their ethos, their skills, their patience and strength.
      The acts of enclosure are ongoing and reaching climax.

  6. How to meet like-minded people:

    After my recent move to a new geographic area, I got connected immediately to freedom-minded people and groups. The tool that allowed me to do that was https://freedomcells.org/. I used the cell map feature to find a group in my area. I joined that group on the website and found out that most of the activity happens on Telegram. I joined the Telegram group and went to a meetup. At that meetup I met someone who plugged me into several more groups in the area. I meet up with those people on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. The rest is history.

    One group that I was plugged into call themselves the Bears. The idea of Bears came from comedian Owen Benjamin. He started a movement (and website) for this called Beartaria. https://beartariatimes.com/. You can become a member and meet like-minded people who are taking action in real life. The people in this community are focused on homesteading and exiting the clown world. They are also strongly focused on building community and helping out their fellow community members. They have meetups where the focus is to help someone with a project. I’ve been to a few meetups. At one, we jacked up someones failing barn to replace the foundational beams supporting the roof so their animals were safe for the winter. This is meaningful action!

    To join this community, you don’t have to be a homesteader or live in the woods, you just have to be willing to start taking back your sovereignty. Watch these documentaries to get an idea of what it is. They are also incredibly inspiring. https://buildingbeartaria.com/

    Out of all the groups I have encountered, the Bears have it the most dialed in. These people are motivated and are actually doing things in major ways. They aren’t just talking about it, they are doing it. The Bears are all over the United States, in rural and urban areas, and even in countries around the world. This is a group/idea most people don’t know about but they are doing massive things and have massive potential. Owen Benjamin is a controversial person and might rub some people the wrong way (as comedians do), but what he has created is flourishing.

    So to sum up, try using the tools of:

    Freedom Cells…
    Beartaria…
    Telegram…

    • Thanks for the info. Is there a way for Corbett Report subscribers to engage and connect? I think that would be useful, since we share similar values and vision. For example, a telegram group?

      • No problem. Perhaps a regional Corbett Report telegram group could work. Like, Corbeteers of Texas, or something like that. I am part of the Corbeteers Freedom Cell. There are a bunch of people in there. You can find it on the freedom cells website. That might be a good place to start.

    • This makes me want to start a Welsh cell called the Goats.

    • Interesting. Much like Amazon’s Utopia

    • Indeed, sort of like this xfiles clip and many of the things we know to be true (and/or planned) https://player.vimeo.com/video/156453270

      I suppose we can make the Ohio topic relevant to this thread by seeing it as an opportunity to better strategize where not to build one’s conscious community?

      (Now I need to go get maps of all the train tracks, prevailing wind patterns and watersheds in Canada and see if I can overlap them somehow and create a rendering that shows areas less likely to be hammered with deadly chemical spills and fumes).

    • It was a Delillo novel long before it was a movie though…

  7. Hey James! This is another good report you supplied us, the listeners, with. We all can relate to the building of community. I just want to point out what this country is like these days. My reason for this is to educate everyone outside the USA that everything in our country is under attack: Villages, groups, beliefs, and food, shelter and water also. Since Feb 4th 2023 we have had vicious storms, balloon surveillance, a chemical release by train wreck, a contrived Super Bowl finish, and now we shoot down anything in the sky, in case. Meanwhile the economy is the real train wreck, taxes have gone up, and this week, mainstream news in the new york area was led by covering the shooting of an off duty policeman who was shot by a a man allegedly selling him a car. To continue, their are undefined explosions happening, strange lightning in the skies that repeat at exact intervals, inexplicable cold weather for a day, also people here are finding burning holes in the ground, but no one knows what causes them, etc. The distractions are actually too numerous to list. The train chemical release caused some authorities to burn the toxic chemicals and loose a toxic cloud in the area of the spill (Ohio). That would solve the problem… no oops it spread to the air and water around it. Yeah they didn’t think that far ahead. Oh well. So you and your positive approach to the worlds problems is very refreshing for me. I have been trying to find groups I can relate to, unfortunately so far without success. The Corbett Report encouragement is vital for me. I can use the energy and information you provide for dealing with family…who have only progressed to the point where our latest get together on Sunday past was an anti-superbowl party in which chinese balloons were a hot topic of considerable laughter. Thanks for your never-ending positive approach…it is infectious, your pal Buz P.S. Ufos sightings here are now a dime a dozen, everybody has seen something, beware the fake invasion!

    • Thanks for that great comment Buz

      If you know anyone living within a 300 mile radius of the massive chemical spill/burn in Ohio, I put together some proactive intel here that they may find helpful https://archive.org/details/r-0brl-09s-ohio-gas-625xawd-300-13-februwdary-23-1/330929851_726833792177456_4689016471240244149_n.jpg (scroll down below the images for info on Dioxin detox foods and info on bioremediation of soil).

      As I was saying in a comment above, perhaps the one benefit we can get out of these disturbing recent events is taking a look at the instances where the damage/chaos has a discernable source point (such as Ohio with the train tracks) and then plan out our intentional communities and homesteads accordingly.

      Though that being said, there is not much one can do (aside from learning natural first aid, foraging, preservation skills etc) to avoid/mitigate the potential risks of weather warfare, geomagnetic and/or solar activity induced Earth changes or a staged ET attack (well aside from what I hinted at above, and staying out of cities where all those things would likely have the ugliest impact).

      I wish you all the best on your quest to see through the lies, know the truth, find likeminded peoples and severe your connections to the oligarchy. If you are into gardening I am always down to do a long distance heirloom seed swap 🙂

    • Yep. Any house built on the sand of ‘individual freedom’ will fall to individual sin. Build your house on the Rock and you won’t be a slave to anyone, no matter your circumstance.

      • @pkadams

        Could you elaborate on what “individual freedom” means in the context in which you are using the term please?

        • I cant answer for him but as I understand Individual Freedom its the ability to act upon ones own will without constraint.

          Its a good thing to have but without a doubt has been taken way way too far as a goal- Freedom can only really have a useful existence as “Freedom TO….”

          Without an actual USE for freedom it generally just becomes Licence to gratify ones own desires without regard to costs inflicted upon others and without regard to duties owned to others….such people are already slaves to their desires and easy for those who supply their vices to control

  8. A site that might help to some degree (at least with experience in gardening before you try it by yourself – having a teacher is always a good idea), is World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Some use permaculture because the site is dedicated to sustainable practices as a whole, but organic is the main theme. There are a few eco villages too. I stayed at Sustainable Kashi in Florida for 3 weeks. Even if you don’t agree with all their philosophies, you can still learn about their way of living.

    https://wwoof.net/

    I also wwoofed in Colombia for a month and a half.

    • @lotusblossom

      I always wanted to do that but always made excuses why my current job etc was more important. I ended up learning how to garden and engage in permaculture design anyways in a different way but I imagine learning in a setting of an established organic farm (or better yet a food forest) with knowledgeable people working there that care about the Earth would be a really great way to learn. Also the fact that people who go ‘wwoof-ing’ are often able to enjoy part of the harvest (especially in a tropical setting where harvests are year round) through the food being included in some of those programs offers the one learning a tangible way to know the true value of real food grown with care in living soil (as compared to the garbage sold in the stores now a days).

      Have you heard of any WWOOF programs that invite people to work in food forests/’agro-forestry’ projects?

      Thanks for the great suggestion 🙂

      • I’ve never heard of food forest or agro-forestry groups. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I haven’t participated since 2018, so there might be some… plus, I only went through 2 paid wwoof sites, the American one and the international one. Perhaps those who have volunteered in such places can give you advice. They often post their experiences in various social media site. I’m sure #wwoof will turn something up.

        • Thanks! I appreciate the reply. I had actually already done a specific search on their website and answered my own question. I put a bunch of comments below with links to permaculture, food forestry or agro-forestry focused WWOOF-ing ‘farms’ in Canada (and beyond).

          The comments with links will likely not show up until James approves them once the sun rises in Japan 🙂

          Thanks again for reminding me about the WWOOF program.

    • Ahh looks like I answered my above question for my self. 🙂 I found the wwoof website has a handy filtered search mode and they do indeed have quite a few host farms that are listed as using methods related to ‘agro-forestry’, food forest design, permaculture gardening and other regenerative food cultivation methods.

      I will share a few links to specific farms/homesteads that are part of the WWOOF program below for anyone that is interested in “wwoofing” in Canada and wants to learn about permaculture, food forest design and/or regenerative ‘agriculture’.

      ——————————————————–

      ?? – 1. https://wwoof.ca/en/host/28914-homestead

      “We live on a 13 acre homestead on beautiful Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada! We are an extended family that gathered here 9 years ago from different cities to co-create a sustainable lifestyle that includes growing, harvesting and preserving our own food and managing our forest, fields and water resources. We use only organic and permaculture principles as we move towards sustainability and self-sufficiency”

      2. https://wwoof.ca/en/host/30289-small-homestead-with-a-developing-food-forest-on-bear-mountain-just-over-an-hour-from-vancouver

      “Small homestead with a developing food forest on Bear Mountain just over an hour from Vancouver. We have established numerous fruit trees and berries as well as herb and vegetable gardens which we grow for both food and seeds and are currently in the process of building a food forest with chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, elderberries and paw paws so far.”

      ??????? – https://wwoof.ca/en/host/28633-family-home-and-garden-rural-educational-centre-agritourism-destination-homestead-hobby-farm

      “We are currently re-designing our 5 acres in order to build it into a Permaculture Demonstration Farm. We are working towards the goal of producing all of our own energy, and growing (most of) our own food for a family of 6 people, and then showing other people how to do it for them selves.”

      ???????????? – https://wwoof.ca/en/host/31158-festival-grounds-forest-garden-wilderness-adventureseco-lodge-woodlot-and-educational-centre

      “Festival grounds, Forest garden, Wilderness Adventures/Eco lodge, Woodlot & Educational Centre. My Manager has been a carpenter for most of his life and is a master craftsman builder. He owns and operates his own sawmill and is site project manager for all capital builds and renovations. He is also the site Permaculture Manager. Through knowledge passed down from generations, life experience and general curiosity, he has a longstanding passion for gardening and permaculture techniques. He is also an avid wild mushroom harvester.”

      (continued..)

    • (continued from above..)

      ??????? – 1. https://wwoof.ca/en/host/29683-alternative-co-operative-community-communal-living-group-family-home-and-garden-rural

      “Justin (one of the owners) has been actively learning and practicing permaculture since he founded a guerilla community garden in Vancouver BC between 2006 and 2010. His interests include earthworks, ponds, food forests, integrating animals into the landscape, renewable energy, biochar, mushrooms, electric transportation, compost, black soldier flies, teaching, working with interns, soil fertility, large-scale earth restoration, all-season greenhouses, regenerative economics and just about everything permaculture.”

      2. https://wwoof.ca/en/host/31215-family-home-and-garden-rural-agritourism-destination-homestead

      “Would you like to experience what setting up an off-grid homestead is like from the ground up?

      Would you like to see how we’ve created our own water and solar harvesting systems, our permaculture gardens, food forest and year-round living accommodations?

      Located in Bancroft, Ontario, on the Canadian Shield amongst the spruces, lakes and beaver ponds, we have started to cultivate a project on our 65-acre plot of land.”

      ?????? – https://wwoof.ca/en/host/29403-petite-exploitation-agroforesterie-maison-familiale-et-jardin-rural

      “We are a small agroforestry company located in Bas-Saint-Laurent, Quebec. Our project started in 2016 with the creation of our company.. ..In 2017, we started our activities with.. ..the inoculation of a thousand logs with shiitake mycelium. In 2018, our mushroom production started and major work started on.. ..establishing a half-hectare diversified orchard.. ..In 2022, we expanded the berry orchard.. ..For 2023, we will have a vegetable garden to maintain, geese and ducks to care for, a lot of wild picking to do, multiplication/maintenance/harvesting in the orchard (mainly berries) as well as inoculation/maintenance/harvesting of the shiitake culture.” -(translated from french)

      ???? ?????? – https://wwoof.ca/en/host/32469-welcome-to-briden-farm-our-regenerative-farming-homestead-in-bear-river-nova-scotia

      “Welcome to Briden Farm, our Regenerative Farming Homestead in Bear River, Nova Scotia. Practicing rotational pasturing and regenerative farming methods.. ..by employing our Goats, Pigs, Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, etc. in helping us accomplish our goals.”

      (continued..)

    • For those in the ?????? ?????? here is a link to search results from their website with permaculture highlighted in the filter for finding WWOOF-ing farms.

      https://wwoofusa.org/en/hosts?methodologies=%5B%22permaculture%22%5D (it says there are 834 farms that are part of the program in the US that describe themselves as using permaculture methods)

      —————————–

      And here are links to WWOOF farms in Ireland, Mexico and Japan for good measure 🙂

      ??????? – https://wwoof.ie/en/hosts?methodologies=%5B%22permaculture%22%5D

      ?????? – https://wwoofindependents.org/en/hosts?countryId=143&map.lat=3.53&map.lon=-19.73&map.zoom=1&methodologies=%5B%22permaculture%22%5D

      ????? – https://www.wwoofjapan.com/home/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&view=userslist&searchmode=0&listid=3&Itemid=2341&lang=en (please note that the Japanese WWOOF website has no search perameters to specify what farming methods are used so that link will show you all the search results for Japan)

      —————————–

      FYI – I have not personally vetted any of the farms above to see if what they describe themselves as is legit and talk is cheap so do your own research. Also, read the fine print carefully as I came across the few farms that were listed as “permaculture”, “regenerative” and/or “food forests” that are apparently run by brainwashed normies that state they require their visiting workers to prove they have received the mRNA genetic slurry death jabs.

      • I expected some farms to require that damn thing since they’re not all doing what they’re doing in order to escape the Great Reset, but since many are surely looking to build a community through this independent site, I figure it won’t be too hard to find a place that suits your needs.

        Plus, anyone looking for volunteers to start their own community with a garden of sort can use this site. Sometimes it’s the farm that needs to be taught and experienced people offer to help. It goes both ways.

        • You said – anyone looking for volunteers to start their own community with a garden of sort can use this site. – What site are you referring to?

  9. I watched the video and went to the Conscious Agora site and read the Manifesto and also watched their video. Broze is a good speaker and very knowledgable. The Manifesto is interesting and it also had some neat history intertwined throughout it. I agree with nearly all of it, however in the context of the website I felt like it was a little too “cultish”. The video solidified my feeling. I was waiting to see people drinking kool-aid at any time (humor). It made me think of a Boards of Canada song called “A beautiful place out in the country” https://youtu.be/zVWcptE6UAI
    I do admire Broze’s vision. I just think culturally (for me) it’s a little too commune leaning. I think Conscious Agora could be modified for modern Western culture to be more realistic. The fact that they are asking for money illustrates that it isn’t an easy solution. If he provided more info on getting land in Mexico (and whether or not it’s easy to do so), this would possibly attract more people.
    I’ve considered moving out of the US to Belize. So much so that we (my family and I) went and scoped it out for a couple weeks to get a feel for it. We punted. We >>could<< do it, but we just didn’t see the benefit at that time, so we moved to Florida where there’s much more freedom and less taxes than California.
    I like the idea of learning and teaching skills with neighbors. Doing this creates community and opens communication. More people need to do this and I am working on “opening up” a little more to my neighbors.

  10. Message for ‘A’, author of the email that featured at the end of this episode:

    I’m in Scotland, Edinburgh and have dug up my garden to grow food too. Get in touch if you’re nearby and would like to meet someone ‘like-minded’ :).

    ———–

    First comment of mine on TCR btw.

    2023 will be interesting! (first understatement of mine on TCR ?)

  11. Great episode James. Some helpful ideas for starting points and pitfalls to watch out for.

    Thanks for introducing me to that great book too, it will be a helpful resource for the future.

    I would prefer not to go all lone wolf mode in the wilderness, but I sense the need may arise, so I prepare for being capable of that while also planting the seeds for cultivating the community I would prefer to be a part of. Hopefully the need never arises, and my wife and I will find ourselves playing a part in co-creating a community in which I can teach those ‘lone wolf’ survival skills to others in the spirit of nurturing resilience and cultivating skills that cross over into enhancing everyday life (rather than using those skills out of desperation). 🙂

  12. This podcast damn almost triggered a midlife crisis.

    There is much wisdom in what was presented and Freeman really topped everything off nicely.

    I also caught a glimpse of the idea that buidling a community is almost as difficult as building a marriage.

    I am also reminded of the former NY mayor that never was, running on the “one issue” platform. Seems like the only way to setup a community is to find people who want just that and are ready to agree to disagree on anything else.

    They also have to agree on what the community is about: food, truth, cooperation, trade … they won’t it in one place.

  13. Perfect Peace, a fundamental demonstration of any (Eternally) Successful Community, is the Passport to a new dimension or way of Being and the necessary state for True and Truly Human Evolution. Reason demands that those who insist on transparency ought to be willing to submit themselves to the same scrutiny. Those integrated sufficiently to objectively observe their own tendencies ultimately reach the following self-evident conclusion: either everyone is innocent, or everyone is guilty. In either case, the war, all war, is over. And where ALL conflict is absent, Perfect Peace Already IS. Such is Enlightenment, and such is Liberation.

    • @source

      Thank you for that very intriguing and insightful comment.

      • Some advice from a new old friend: Real God (prior to any mind-full interpretation) MUST be at the Center (as a common goal or purpose) of the project(ion), in order to be Ultimately (Eternally) Successful. (forgive my shorthand:) Blessings and Regards, B
        Our project:https://sourcetemple.one/booklet.pdf

        • @source

          Greetings old/new friend 🙂

          I agree wholeheartedly.

          It was not an easy or comfortable path for me to come to cultivate a relationship with God being raised in a family full of doubt, fear, ego and anthropocentrism (atheists) but Mother Earth guided me home when I let go of my ‘mind-full’ of fear, doubt and ego and allowed my heart to see and know the truth in the wilderness.

          While I do not resonate with dogmatic religious belief systems/institutions I see the act of each individual choosing to look within and chart their own path to spiritual growth as being of paramount importance and in fact (as you allude to) the one prerequisite factor for humans to be able to break the cycles of the past and create voluntary, intentional, peaceful and regenerative communities that exist in symbiosis with the Earth. In order to find a truly universal ethical compass, goal and purpose, I believe each individual must come to know their own soul and cultivate a direct relationship with God of their own volition and in their own unique way.

          I elaborate on my own path to come to that realization and my perspectives on matter of spiritual knowing in the article linked below:

          https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/spiritual-autodidacticism

          May all the seeds you plant in the Earth, in your heart and in the minds of those you cross paths with produce an abundance of nourishment for the body, mind and soul.

          • An interesting synchronicity which clearly Illustrates our joint declaration regarding a Relationship with God, taking the “shape” in this case, of what I would call a Perfect Communication (in other words, a Sign that Real God has brought us together)… In the inspired article you wrote and linked, you mention Charles Eisenstein, quoting from his brilliant essay on forgiveness. Well, Charles is a dear friend of Source Temple, and is, in both a spiritual and empirical sense, directly responsible for the survival of our community (a long story in which Charles appears literally as a Messenger of God). Even more Illuminating, is the mysterious fact that the response I sent to your initial reply to my post was actually written for Charles! I had just sent it to him via a friend and felt, for some inexplicable reason, that it was also meant for you. Curiouser and curiouser…Here is a link to an article Charles wrote after visiting us a couple of years back: https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/source-temple-and-the-great-reset/

            • @source

              An interesting and auspicious synchronicity indeed. 🙂

              I had totally forgotten about Charles writing the essay describing his experience visiting your community. Thank you for reminding me as much of the wisdom he shared in that essay serves as an affirmation that recent choices I have made in my life to ‘make things more beautiful than they have to be’ were worth it (despite all the external pressure I have been receiving).

              In the essay you linked above Charles was describing the way in which the buildings and relationships that he observed in your community provide a kind of “Wealth” that is not attainable via any other path than one that involves looking inward and living with devotion/reverence for the sacredness of life. He wrote:

              “The buildings and objects of Source Temple convey a kind of wealth. I don’t think people would be greedy for bigger houses and more money if they were immersed in an environment like this. The unmet needs that drive greed would be met. The tragedy of greed, of course, is that it no amount of money or anything else can ever sate it. No matter how much they consume, the greedy person remains hungry. That isn’t due to a moral flaw. It is because they are starving – starving for what money cannot buy.”

              This is also a synchronistic alignment for me, as in a way, honing lenses of perception and formulating pathways of learning that enable each individual to cultivate that kind of inner wealth (what I define as “True Wealth”) has been my focus over the last decade. For the last decade and have distilled down what I have learned through my experience in permaculture design, soil science, herbalism, meditation and food preservation into a book I hope to publish soon. The types of gardening and the types of food preparation I advocate and describe in my book involve embodying devotion for the living Earth, devotion for the unrepeatable moment and what Charles describes as “living in the gift”.

              I hope to offer people a trail map to re-connect with the living Earth, cultivate “True Wealth” and remember who and what they really are so that they can develop their own unique gifts to be capable of providing the medicine this world needs (in each of their communities). When one cultivates devotion and reverence within, and then uses their hands to co-create in a way that reflects that knowing of the sacred in the garden and in the kitchen it can help to break the spell of the hypnotic propaganda of the corporate oligarchy and remind them what really matters in life. From that point, the next step and pathway to become even more radiant agents of regeneration, transformation and metamorphosis for our human family moves into creating communities like yours. Perhaps some day my wife and I will come visit you 🙂

              I am grateful that spirit guided us to cross paths.

            • @source

              How are you doing for access to seeds for your gardens down there?

              I have an abundance of extra heirloom seeds in my collection right now and many of them would thrive in a warm and humid climate.

              If you would be interested in growing some in your gardens and my abundance of seeds would bring more diversity, joy and resilience to your community, I would be happy to try sending you some in the mail.

              • Dear Gavin,
                My name is Prudence, a four-year resident of Source Temple, and I wanted to thank you for your generous offering of heirloom seeds. My main function in the community is gardening, both ornamental and vegetable, and I cannot describe how delighted I was to receive news of your desire to send a gift.

                While I knew absolutely nothing about gardening when I arrived, I found my way to the garden on the first day and never left (well, not for long). I did not expect to have such a passion for working with plants (flowers and food of all shapes, sizes, and colors), especially having been born and raised in Manhattan, the concrete jungle, but I have only gratitude for gift of being able to do what I love among those that I love. Thank you again for your willingness to share your seeds. I would be thrilled if our gardens could reflect the abundance, strength, diversity, joy, and flavor that we have among our residents.

                You can send them to:
                Juliana Cristina de Oliveira
                3628623383
                Avenida Francisco Alves de Oliveira, 280, Alto do Jovino, Cunha, São Paulo, Brasil 0
                Zip code 12530-000

                Many Thanks,
                Prudence

            • @source

              Greetings Prudence 🙂

              Excellent! I will take a look through my collection and see what varieties I have that I think would do well in your climate.

              If you like you can send me an email so we can stay in touch regarding the seeds and I can let you know once I have put the packages of seeds together and sent them your way ( you can find my email through this page of my website: https://recipesforreciprocity.com/contact/ )

              Thank you for sharing your story with me. I find your description of going from the concrete jungle to falling in love with nature and working close with plants very inspiring 🙂

              I have seeds for one type of heirloom chili pepper that you may be familiar with (since it is from Brazil). It is called the Biquinho pepper (they are small tear shaped peppers that ripen to a bright red color and are sweet, with a little bit of heat and a lot of flavor). Do you have any growing in your garden?

              Given you probably do not get frost at the Source Temple, I imagine the pepper plants could be grown as perennials and continue to produce for 3-5 years. What a blessing not having to plant them each year! 🙂

              I also have some medicinal tea herbs from India and Africa that would thrive in your climate and could also be grown as perennials (providing a perpetual harvest of flavorful and medicinal leaves for brewing tea).

              I would love to learn more about your gardens at the Source Temple and what you currently grow there.

              I look forward to hearing back from you and wish you many bountiful harvests of both food for the body and nourishment for the soul.

              Sincerely,
              -Gavin

            • @source

              I gathered together and packaged up some of my favorite heirlooms from our collection and shipped them your way earlier today 🙂

              Here is a picture of the varieties I sent https://archive.org/details/seeds4source

              I`ll put together a document with info on the germination, cultivation and pertinent cultural/culinary info on each variety and email that to you (with the tracking number for the package) in the next couple days.

              I hope these seeds bring much joy, nourishment for the body, food for the soul, poetry for the senses and added resilience to your community.

              • So gracious and kind of you to give so completely of yourself, a true demonstration of the benevolence of Cooperative Community. You and yours are forever welcome where we are. Love and Blessings, B.

              • @source

                Thank you, if we ever do travel down your way I will definitely take you up on that offer! 🙂

                I am so glad to hear that people in your community have been enjoying the Tulsi (holy basil) harvests.

                Much love and respect from Canada.

  14. I learned in the recent Peak Prosperity Webinar of a group that is building a “Resiliency Ranch” in Arizona, with plans to do more around the country. This is a budding concept/endeavor but sounds interesting on multiple levels. They explain it in this Lynette Zang interview – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ztjyaUcngQ. Or their website – https://campfireproperties.com/
    Along with building a small, self reliant community, they plan to offer homesteading courses. The community isn’t necessarily a buy-in; it can also be a campsite or rental, or if it comes to it, a bug-out. I thought it was worth exploring.

  15. I appreciate “A” from Scotland’s comment because my family has experienced the same over the past decade. However, we are determined to keep moving forward with building our 16+ acre homestead with “community” in mind.

    We started a food forest many years ago, converted our barn into a private community center, transformed our red clay into fertile soil, planted gardens & built greenhouses to feed more than just our family of five.

    In 2021 we sectioned off an acre lot to act as a sojourner campground, for those seeking to come out of the System and needing a temporary place to stay. We installed infrastructure to handle an off-grid kitchen & bathroom facility for that space, and we hope to complete that facility’s construction before spring.

    In the past we’ve hosted week-long camp-outs on the homestead, giving us experience with managing & participating in community living, and we’ve sheltered individuals & families from time to time for anywhere from a weekend to up to 6 months at a time.

    While my husband has wanted to participate in building an intentional community (outside of our homestead) for many years and has found it *very* challenging to find folks willing & ready to make that kind of a move, we are building our homestead to act as a bit of a village *for our own family* and invited guests.

    And now, we are reaching out to mostly new-found friends & like-minded folks (since 2020) in the local & regional area, hosting networking opportunities, community meals & educational potlucks to help people understand what we’re all about & to strengthen relationships within that community. And that’s been going well thus far.

    We’ve recently begun to facilitate barter & gift exchanges, and we plan to host a variety of workshops starting in March.

    In 2020 I began a personal letter-writing campaign to reach out to our neighbors & get to know those willing to be known. I shared how I did that here (plus personal advice in building community): http://www.carriewigal.com/

    Freedomcells.org yielded one great local relationship in 2021 that opened the doors to two new local relationships of like-mind the same year. PrepperNet.net led us to a great regional relationship in 2022, which has opened doors to additional beneficial regional relationships.

  16. In 2008 I co-founded our current non profit – It Takes A Village Ministry. (www.itavministry.org) Over and over agin, I have struggled to find people of like mind who are willing to TAKE ACTION. I even sold my home and went on the road with the Hope and Healing Tour in an effort to find these people.

    A little over a year ago, I purchased 5 acres to use as “ground zero” to building a network of ecovillages. Our on site community center is home to thousands of books, videos, and other resources on health, spirituality, history, parenting, and more. Additionally, we have goats, chickens, geese. We also have plans to create mini homes and cultivate ample gardens to feed the contributing members.

    I offer an invitation to those who may be out there seeking to BE a part of the change we say we want.

  17. Totally unrelated to this video but I want to warn the Corbetteer community – for those who haven’t found out yet – that the investigation against Trudeau for using the Emergency Act is done. We’re going into a deep state of control. Not only was the act necessary, according to the judge, but tighter measures should have been taken earlier in order to quell the protest. They blame the lack of cooperation from and amongst the city, provincial and federal governments/police for the upheaval, with Trudeau getting only a slap on the wrist for name-calling…

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bOzZVkf39os

    Pardon the French video. I’m sure you guys can find a version in your mother tongues quite easily, though.

  18. I sympathize with people’s desire to form like-minded communities. I have been pondering such ideas for 40 years but my conclusion is that “normal-productive-happy” society-culture-civilization doesn’t work like that! No wonder James is still wondering why no such viable community has been successfully formed. 🙂

    The history of “utopian” communities proves it (see wikipedia etc.) The history of Amish/Hutterire/Menonite/Dukhobors etc. proves it. These communities may seem to work OK for a while but eventually there are serious (economic, sociological, personal, marital) problems. One’s “liberty & freedom” will eventually become subject of one’s obedience to the community and its leaders.

    I don’t mean to be critical, but, sadly, any small artificially formed community formed outside a larger context of like-minded society will eventually become like a cult due to its “hellish spiritual coherence and contentment” (see quote below). Another problem is that a small community will not be able to be independent of the laws of a larger community in which it lives. Yet another problem is the community’s ability to defend its ideals and property with force.

    Allow me to illustrate with three quotes by G. K. Chesterton who opposed both socialism & capitalism and suggested the so called “third way” called Distributism (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism). You can find these abbreviated by various quote-websites, but for your convenience here is the full context.

    All three from Chesterton’s early 1905 work “Heretics”:

    http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/heret12.txt

    1)

    It is not fashionable to say much nowadays of the advantages of the small community. We are told that we must go in for large empires and large ideas. There is one advantage, however, in the small state,the city, or the village, which only the wilfully blind can overlook.The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce varieties and uncompromising divergences of men. The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us.

    Thus in all extensive and highly civilized societies groups come into existence founded upon what is called sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery.
    There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique. The men of the clan live together because they all wear the same tartan or are all descended from the same sacred cow; but in their souls, by the divine luck of things, there will always be more colours than in any tartan. But the men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell.

    A big society exists in order to form cliques. A big society is a society for the promotion of narrowness. It is a machinery for the purpose of guarding the solitary and sensitive individual from all experience of the bitter and bracing human compromises. It is, in the most literal sense of the words, a society for the prevention of Christian knowledge.

    [SNIP – Please keep comments to 500 words or less. Longer comments can be split into multiple posts.]

    • hpete

      “…The history of “utopian” communities proves it (see wikipedia etc.) The history of Amish/Hutterire/Menonite/Dukhobors etc. proves it. These communities may seem to work OK for a while but eventually there are serious (economic, sociological, personal, marital) problems…..”

      Most Utopian communities that fail are based on weird, unnatural, ideas which is why they fail.

      I Know the Dukhorrs went nuts and acted as an utter PITA , but they started off as a fringe cult anyway.

      The AMISH on the other hand are rather successful- both in the fact that they make enough money to buy more farms AND in their birth rate which is high enough that they are growing in numbers last I heard. Considering that they release their young into the wild and not all return to teh community they appear to be doing rather well.

      “.. One’s “liberty & freedom” will eventually become subject of one’s obedience to the community and its leaders…”

      If you want to live in a SUCCESSFUL group that is the nature of things…you can not have a successful household where husband and wife and children all choose exactly whatever they please and act any way they like and community should be an extension of those kinds of bonds.

      • Duck,

        RE: “Most Utopian communities that fail are based on weird, unnatural, ideas which is why they fail.”

        Exactly! So what are the “normal natural” ideas for communities ? It seems James would also like to know, but no cigar so far…

        The history of all these sects, going back to medieval Europe, is fascinating. The bottom line is that they were everywhere shunned & despised. Why? Sociologically and religiously they had very weird customs and practices which isolated them even more. Like in the case of Dukhobors who were derived from the “Adamites”, or sects which were seeking the original Eden and chose to shun clothes, with interesting results… 🙂

        But even for more normal sects, they were shunned because of their withdrawal from the wider society and their refusal to meaningfully integrate into the society. They wanted to live in peaceful isolation ignoring the wider needs of society, such as the very practical defence against (Turkish) invasions in Central Europe and Russia. That is why they eventually moved to America which was opening to isolated settlements like that, where they could continue their “weird” ideas.

        This isolation is happening until today – they show up only to stock up on groceries and industrial products which they cannot produce, and for health-care. I am not sure how “happy” would most people be if they had to wear drab uniforms, were forced to work, eat and live in communal setting, without any privacy/freedom, … I have seen/visited some such communities and I always felt rather sorry for all these nice people living like uniformed ants.

        Re: “The AMISH on the other hand are rather successful-… Considering that they release their young into the wild…”

        I am all for high birth rate, but as you admit the very fact that they cannot all remain within the community, (or don’t want to), proves that no community can remain isolated, and eventually must somehow integrate into a wider culture and society. (And I don’t want to talk about what I heard about some of the methods to increase the diversity of their gene-pool.)

        Depends on what you mean by “success”. Yes, economically they seem to be successful because of their communalism/socialism, but socialism never works long term, and does not result in a happy/merry society! (This is one of the main points staunchly publicized and defended in all works of G. K. Chesterton.)

        An excellent example is the sect of Bohemian Taborites who built a biblical “City on the Hill” where all possessions were held in common. This worked for about 5-10 years, then their “communism” collapsed and they reverted to private property, but these ideas spread into Germany, resulting in bloody peasant uprisings and wars. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taborites). Robert Owen, Karl Marx’s and others “utopians” were influenced by these socialist-communist ideals. How successful is such communism in Russia and China today?

        BTW, Shakespeare also yearned for such a happy & merry Bohemian society, see the merry Bohemian shepherds and the Clown in The Winter’s Tale.

        [SNIP – Please keep comments to 500 words or less. Longer comments can be split into multiple posts. -JC]

        • Pt1

          THAT is actually a pretty easy answer- the problem is that most people do not LIKE the answer.
          The basis of ALL community is the Family Unit….from the family grows the extended family and the tribe of genetically related people. From the Tribe you get ethnic groups and nations, though you CAN get the same effect with a shared religion.

          The thing is, that “The Authoritarian Personality” (and various influential weirdos and perverts), have Re-Framed “the Family” as an oppressive structure of domination. The same idea was pushed in popular (mostly jewish) media from about the 60’s on. You have only to look at the average kids show where the pattern is
          1)Dad is stupid and subservient to the the Mom
          2) Mom is smarter then Dad
          3)The Kids generally have little (or hostile) interactions with their parents and focus on their friend groups.

          Fact is that EVEN the MOST CONSERVATIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET have been swimming thru this cultural poison for so long that they consider it normal.

          Even many of the most conservative men and women think in ways that were restricted to radical feminists, commies and subversives a hundred years ago.
          THAT is why Its a TRUE meme that one day the conservatives will say “Democrats are the REAL Transphobes!” …. Fix the family and everything else will (almost) fix itself. You can not have a community of people who do not believe that they are born with obligations and duties that supersede their own personal satisfaction

          “….these sects, going back to medieval Europe, is fascinating…”
          Yes!
          “…The bottom line is that they were everywhere shunned & despised. Why?….”
          In the case of Anabaptists it was generally because they rejected normal morality and tried to create Totalitarian theocratic governments in opposition to the kings. I must say that EM Jones “Jewish Revolutionary Spirit, Vol 1 covers them VERY well.

          “… Sociologically and religiously they had very weird customs and practices…..”
          HOWEVER…. You should note that the idea of personal revelations, personal freedom and personal sin-lessness ARE NOT UNUSUAL TODAY.
          The JRS (esp in the New Age religion version) is very like those old ideas.

          “….But even for more normal sects, they were shunned because of their withdrawal from the wider society and their refusal to meaningfully integrate into the society….”
          No one appears to have shunned the early Christian Monks. I would argue that the behavior of Anabaptists was what got them on the $h1t list. No one hates the Amish (since their ancestors gave up bad behavior)

          CONTINUED

        • Pt2
          hpete

          “…. I am not sure how “happy” would most people be if they had to wear drab uniforms, were forced to work, eat and live in communal setting, without any privacy/freedom, … “
          To be happy you need
          1)Someone to LOVE
          2)Something useful to DO
          3)Something to HOPE for

          People were often happy on Slave plantations and all manner of physically unpleasant situations as long as they have those three…..People with masses of money and freedom have been miserably unhappy without them

          Re: “The AMISH ….”I am all for high birth rate, but as you admit the very fact that they cannot all remain within the community, (or don’t want to), proves that no community can remain isolated, and eventually must somehow integrate into a wider culture and society….”

          Actually I did not say that they COULD not all remain, but that some choose not to. Thats a good way to get rid of the dross and malcontents is it not? That valve makes their community MORE stable.

          “…. socialism never works long term, and does not result in a happy/merry society!….”
          Amish are not strictly speaking ‘socialist’
          However… “socialism” works just great INSIDE THE FAMILY. It also works to a lesser extent in a small community with close blood ties. It does NOT work in a large modern state of people without close bonds to each other.

          “…Bohemian Taborites who built a biblical “City on the Hill” where all possessions were held in common. This worked for about 5-10 years, then their “communism” collapsed and they reverted to private property, but these ideas spread into Germany, resulting in bloody peasant uprisings and wars…..”

          Yes…. Insane Extra-Biblical cults DO tend to create bloody murder. I would argue that being demonically inspired kinda sends them in that direction. They had a bad case of the Jewish Revolutionary Spirit as Dr Jones calls it.

          The most disturbing fact is that “wider society” today has MORE IN COMMON WITH THE TABORITES THEN WITH NORMAL PEOPLE OF THAT PERIOD. Where do you think “wider society” is headed???” 🙂

          Adamites have returned

          • Duck,

            We agree on most what you have outlined – normal/natural family (mom & dad & kids), love, purpose, hope, tribe, city, nation/patriotism, father’s authority, etc. .That is how even Aristotle outlines it his Politics, and incidentally he was quite critical of Plato’s crazy ideas (wives and children in common, guardians enforcing the education and Plato’s laws, etc.) These are still popular today for some strange reason. Yes, natural normally functioning family is the key building block on which a healthy society & community must be built! Why it isn’t? I would argue because Christian roots of natural family are being eroded.

            The next most important point is widely distributed property as Chestereton and Belloc outlined it in their works! Otherwise you will get “The Servile State” of Belloc. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Servile_State)

            Christian monks were accepted because they lived within the normal healthy context of then very Christian societies. (With many faults, sure, but essentially Christian publicly.) Pretty much all of Europe’s culture and eduction originated with monks like Benedictines, Cistercians etc. in Western Europe monks like St. Cyril and Methodius in the Byzantine east where they founded the culture of all Slavic nations – Great Moravia, Bohemia, Russia-Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, etc.

            I am not sure how happy people today would be on slave plantations, but I get your point! (That is how St. Paul saw it also.) In that respect I disgree when people keep talking that we are going back to “feudalism” – serfs and feudalism was an improvement on slave society, just as true democracy, as long as it worked, was an improvement on feudalism. Techno-slavery is the ultimate form of tyranny.

            I disagree that the society today has much in common with Taborites – they got the issues of property wrong initially, and they were quite cruel to Catholic monks whom they summarily executed, but they had a deep sense of community and “social justice” based on the original ideals of Christianity.

            Where is the society heading? Do you listen to news and James’ videos and articles? Nuclear WW3, bioweapons, runway AI, toxic food, deadly “healthcare”, transhumanism, and other nasty types of modern techno-warfare we don’t even know about like EMP, chemtrails, UFO-like stuff. All within the context of atheistic, satanic, stupid & corrupt politicians and artsies. No wonder many (good) Christian preachers are seriously worried about “Armageddon”.

            • hpete
              “….I disagree that the society today has much in common with Taborites – they got the issues of property wrong initially, and they were quite cruel to Catholic monks whom they summarily executed, but they had a deep sense of community and “social justice” based on the original ideals of Christianity…..”

              There is a MASSIVE sense of “Social Justice” and ideological holiness in todays society. 🙂

              The Anabaptist movement has a LOT in common with todays culture

              1) A sense of PERSONAL revelation/insight superseding authority/tradition/reality.

              2) A focus on creating perfect world (“healing the world” as our old friend The JRS would put it) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam

              3) Weird sexual immorality, that goes beyond simple fleashly lust for pleasure into a deeper spiritual sickness and sterility.

              4) Focus, a very vehement one, on openness to almost anything EXCEPT systems of authority and knowledge that question this openness

              5) Socialist thinking based not as much on co-operation and duty as upon redistribution and coercion.

              Both are emanations from the Jewish Revolutionary Spirit which is in no way tied to a persons DNA but to their root ideology.
              You have read a good deal more then me on some things so I would recommend the 3 vol “Jewish Revolutionary Spirit” by Dr EM Jones.

              “…Where is the society heading? … Nuclear WW3, bioweapons, runway AI, toxic food,…”

              Those things can certainly KILL you but they are just distractions. Fix those things and new horrors will just pop up because of the underlying JRS – its like bailing a boat but not stopping the dozen people poking holes in the side.

              • Duck,

                Yes, many people today claim to act in the spirit of “social justice” – from Catholics, various Christians, other faiths like Muslims, etc. to communists, “far-left-progressives”, and various crazy “hippies” and “special agenda” groups. It is an overloaded term.

                I used it in a plain “biblical” sense (Christ’s Sermon on the Mount) of having sympathy with a truly suffering or neglected human being or with badly exploited suffering societies. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount ) So my heart pains when I see truly hungry or sick people in need, or enslaved people, or even a passed out druggie, even if there isn’t much I can do. This is how people like Chesterton still saw the suffering & exploited humanity a century ago – he carried pockets full of money so he could give something to all beggars he met. Sadly, the modern society perverted even the notion of “the poor” and “beggar”.

                This is how the Taborites still understood their biblical duty to help the poor, hungry, suffering, etc. Their struggle must also be seen in the context of the current political & religious situation. There was a deep political crisis in Europe, anarchy in Bohermia and much of Europe, English, French, Italian kings & oligarchs fighting (Guelphs vs Ghibellines), with anti-popes, religious schism, robber barons, etc. The Council of Constance, organized by the emperor, was trying to restore social order, and was supposed to fix most of these political & religious problems. Even a staunchly Catholic historian H. Belloc admitted that the Reformation was indeed needed.

                In some respects it was like the politicized situation today with the Deep State and the Deep Church – from the Bergoglian clique in the Vatican, and pretty much all Christian organized churches and denominations – sadly, they all go along with the Malthusian globalist agenda and nazi/fascist vaccination policies. ( see https://www.glennbeck.com/radio/how-vatican-citys-dark-secrets )

                The Husites got really angry when the emperor (by birth a Bohemian) promised safe conduct to John Hus whom the fanatical political Catholics burned despite the emperor’s promise. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor ) Their fight became in fact a “self-defense” (like George Washignton’s fight against the imperialist British) and the outraged Hussites/Taborites successfully fought the “deep state/deep-church” Catholic imperial forces despite all the odds.

                But deep down the Hussites had a genuine sense of true Christian social justice. This “Bohemian” history, which Shakespeare admired, culminated in the “humanism” of Czechoslovakia under its spiritual and political father T.G. Masaryk who admired this Hussite trait and built the whole Czechoslovak ethos on this key point of Hussite “humanism”. In fact, Masaryk aptly concluded that the purpose and the aim of history of every nation is its realization of this Christian ideal of “humanity.”

                P.S.

                I am not familiar with E.M. Jones and his works. I did a quick search and the first thing that came up was ( https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/combating-hate/E-Michael-Jones.pdf ) If this assesment is correct then Jones is not really a Catholic or Christian !!!

  19. Hey everyone, just wanted to swing by and share an article I just published on the importance of saving heirloom seeds.

    The article explores why seed saving is an incomprehensibly powerful act that serves to increase one’s food sovereignty, encouraging resilient communities and nurturing the Gift Economy.

    https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/seed-saving-to-save-the-future

    As I have said before, I consider the act of saving and sharing heirloom seed as an act of sabotage as it throws a monkey wrench into the machinery of the global corporatocracy (that seeks to own all seed, buying out and shutting down the small family owned companies, patenting what they can and seeking to perpetually profit from their false claims of owning intellectual rights to the genetic fabric of life).

    Each time we save and share seeds (and share the resulting abundance of crops) we are taking steps towards divesting from/boycotting centralized food and monetary systems which are corrupt and do much harm to the Earth and our collective future.

    Therefore, one of the the most powerful forms of peaceful resistance we can engage in these times of plutocratic totalitarianism, pharmaceutical tyranny and corporate corruption begins with a handful of seeds and some tlc.

  20. As always, I love #SolutionsWatch.

    Community is a tricky thing. But having a community doesn’t have to be an off-grid intentional village. Community can happen in the “urban jungle”. And at least for most of us, it has to at least start there.

    As to the question of where to find like-minded people to form a community with – try taking a class in person or joining a club. Show up. Participate. Get to know people, and make friends. Say yes to invitations, host a party. You won’t jive with everyone but will likely find at least one. Then repeat with another skill or interest. There are other ways of course, as many here have shared. But engaging with a group of people that already share an interest, there is a common foundation already there to build upon. What are you into or want to know more about? See what’s in your area, then invest in yourself as well as your community.

    • Sorry Torus, society is too polarized after Covid! Yours is a generally given advice by people like RFK, Malone, etc. , but it doesn’t work! It is almost impossible to make friends with ignorant “normies” who don’t see the real issues and the real deadly dangers looming on the horizon. Trying to inform & educate them simply doesn’t work, since THEY don’t want to take us seriously. Many are simply stupidly arrogant. Most don’t have enough “scientific” knowledge, and don’t know history, to see throuht the scams and psyops.

      Most of “us” have lost almost all of our former friends – families, communities, churches, and nations are increasingly polarized. Many actually know what is going but refuse to admit it and act accordingly. Yes, I continue to be polite, smiling, friendly, engaging, but as soon as I try to raise the real issues I am shunned like a conspiracy fool or an ideological leper.

      • hpete

        I do actually agree with you on this point, “It is almost impossible to make friends with ignorant “normies” who don’t see the real issues and the real deadly dangers looming on the horizon. Trying to inform & educate them simply doesn’t work, since THEY don’t want to take us seriously.” Yes, it’s difficult to break through to someone who doesn’t want to hear it.

        However, I am not suggesting trying to educate normies. Perhaps I should have worded it differently, because my idea is to take a class or workshop that will help you through the impending calamities AND find like-minded people there.

        For example food preservation, raising chickens, marksmanship, alternative building, permaculture, fiber works, water conservation, medicinal herbs, land restoration, plant propagation, encryption, community art, soil building, I could go on. If you participate in hands on skills training or even informational classes that are related to solutions to these “real deadly dangers” you will find that you are not the only one who recognizes those dangers.

        I took a Permaculture Design Course with about 25 other people. Very diverse- veterans, hippies, republicans, democrats, libertarians, climate-realists, climate-alarmists, vegans, ranchers, indigenous, statists, and anti-government, quite the range. (Even one man who knew about “The Greater Reset” and Derrick Broze and Freedom Cells). Now, am I currently friends with all those people? No. Did we all agree to form an “intentional community”? No. But I did make some real, lasting connections and we still meet up for events, continuing classes, and to help one another with projects. We are a community of sorts, even if we don’t see the world in exactly the same way.

        I’m just saying, those people are out there (those who see the problems and want to build their resiliency) and starting with a common interest is a good way to find them. There are other proud “conspiracy theorists” around who won’t shame you.

        • Torus, I don’t see how we can restore normal human society and community without “converting/educating” the normies.

          Good food production and agriculture is important, but not all people are able, capable (even physically), or willing to become a farmer, architect/builder, or herbalists. Farming and even serious gardening is not easy. It is hard work and you need a lot of supplies, fertilizers, pest-deterrents, favorable climate and good weather. Sure, you can take such courses, plant some tomatos and beans or whatever, and some useful medicinal herbs. (But you don’t really need a “course”, a lot of this stuff can be readily found on the internet, you can buy books, etc…) Sure, it is good to exchange views with like-minded people on topics you are interested in. But as you admit, you haven’t really formed a “real” community.

          Just curious, why would you want to be an expert marksman or cryptographer? You will not be able to “outshoot” the brain-washed servants of the Military Industrial Complex with their “fire-power”, or their drones, robo-dogs and the like. Or beat the techno-gurus of the deep state who control the satelites, the Internet, and the whole tech. That is why Christ was very reserved about arms and told his disciples that “two swords” were enough”, presumably for self-defense against thugs in a crisis situation.

          Isn’t it true that “The pen is mightier than the sword”? Isn’t it better to try to appeal to people’s sense of morality and humanity? (See my reply to Duck above on “social justice.”)

          Duck, (Re: “Why would you try to ally with stupid and weak people? …”)

          Our real community is precisely where we live, where our neighbors are. If the society collapses, or power and communications fail, that is where we will be stuck! (Surprisingly even Dr. Malone admitted something like this – in a recent interview he predicted that the financial system may fail this year and he urged people to become “preppers”.) We will be stuck with dope-smokers, naive old ladies, hippies, weirdos, progressives, or whoever happens to live in your neighborhood. Hopefully there will be some normal people and families with kids, etc. Hopefully some kind of community will form to face the challenges… or else…

          If we cannot convince sane and good-willing people about the correctness and practicality of our “ideals”, we are doomed. Our only hope will be some “divine” intervention. Sure, if the society collapses, and you “hate” your “stupid” neighbors, witdraw to a real like-minded communty, if you can. Most people cannot practically do that! The real question, for most of us, especially it times of imminent crisis, ought to be – How do we engage our neighbors, the ignorant/arrogant normies, how can we convince them to see the truth?

          • hpete,
            I didn’t realize you were on Hopium to counter-act the side effects of the Black-pill you took. Sorry about that. It’s a rough place to be – thinking that learning new skills is pointless while hoping for “normal” and hoping for “divine” intervention. I feel for you, friend.

            Again I will clarify, educating/converting the normies is one PART in the tool-bag of solutions. It is difficult (as we have both expressed) and is best done in a one-on-one, face-to-face setting where you can appeal to the individual needs/interests of that person. How? You engage “ignorant/arrogant normies” by finding a common ground and expanding from there.
            Another PART of that toolbag is having skills that a community finds valuable. And having relationships with people that have valuable skills.
            And I might add that Mr Corbett is offering many other tools (aka solutions) here.

            Regarding your comments of the classes/courses I suggested: First, obviously all information is available on the net or in books, the point is to Get Involved In Your Community by meeting people, in person, and developing a relationship IRL (in real life). Second, functioning communities require a DIVERSE group of people with varying skills, talents, and abilities. I am certainly not an expert in all the things I named, but it would be nice to be in community with people who have those skills (plus more). And yes, protection and self-defense are part of that. (If you like Christ’s swords in lieu of firearms, go for it). Third, yes it is good “to appeal to people’s morality and humanity” because it is within most of us. And lastly, while gardening/farming is somewhat labor intensive, you do not “need a lot of supplies, fertilizers, pest-deterrents, favorable climate and good weather”. If one were to take a permaculture class you would learn about appropriate technology, organic inputs, and stacking functions to make food production viable, abundant, and lasting in any climate. Action is key to overcoming problems.

            In closing, I wish you the best with your hopes, and good luck “with dope-smokers, naive old ladies, hippies, weirdos, progressives, or whoever happens to live in your neighborhood.” Community is indeed those in your immediate geographical location, but community is also those with whom you have relationship including friendship, commerce, and comradery.

            • Torus,

              Yes it is time to close this exchange, but just for the record, I would like to briefly address some of your, let’s say, misconceptions. My intent is to clarify and hopefully help others, like giulia below, to wisely choose which skills are worth focusing on. At the top of my list is the “skill of correct thinking.”

              1) I don’t believe in “Hopium” as James defined it, but in Hope.

              “hopium, the belief that this new god from the machine was going to swoop in with his Q Clearance compatriots and save the day at the last moment.” (https://www.corbettreport.com/a-brief-history-of-hopium-video/)

              Referring to the ancient Greek theatrical plot concept that a “god out of the machine” will swoop down and solve a seemingly unsolvable problem was the playwright’s answer, telling people that the solution to any such problem is so difficult that one would have to invoke some divine/supenarnatural intervention or wisdom. You would really have to get deep into the plot of these “tragedies” like Medea, Hippolytus, Helena, etc. to understand what Euripides was trying solve and tell the Greeks.

              BTW, the same plot device is still quite popular in modern film art, for example
              https://screenrant.com/biggest-deus-ex-machina-moments-in-film-history/

              2) I did not take the “black pill”, I am a realist. BTW, I don’t believe in the the confusing Martix pill nomenclature because it is a flawed paradigm.

              3) I didn’t say learning any useful skills is pointless. But, given our predisposition and talents, physical condition, purpose, and limited time & resources, I think that some skills, and their level of skill, will be more useful and appropriate. So if you focus on becoming an “expert” , rather than “good enough” you may have to deal with the Murphy’s Law:

              “An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.”

              Yes, with respect to “Christ’s swords” advice I think it is quite appropriate for any individual or community. Perphaps you are not an expert in Bible interpretation and really think I would literally advise people to defend themselves with swords against machine guns, like in the movie The Last Samurai ?

              (E.g. see on Youtube “The Gatling Gun – In The Movies”)

              Kurosawa’s brilliant movie Seven Samurai is an excellent example of what I am trying to say – the Samurai very wisely tried to steal the bandits’ muskets, knowing that even their expert swordsmanship will be no match to brutal “firepower.”

              4) Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with your conclusion:
              “Community is indeed those in your immediate geographical location, but community is also those with whom you have relationship including friendship, commerce, and comradery.”

      • hpete
        “…Yours is a generally given advice by people like RFK, Malone, etc. , but it doesn’t work! It is almost impossible to make friends with ignorant “normies” who don’t see the real issues and the real deadly dangers looming on the horizon….”

        Why would you try to ally with stupid and weak people?

        Its like expecting ti find wife material in a dive bar or someone to watch your kids in a crack house or gathering a bunch of old cripples do go have a rumble with a biker gang.

        The kind of people who do not want to wake up are useless, or worse will drag others down with them when they drown.

        I think many of us “conspiracy theorists” are missing the comforting warmth of the crowd, or should I say rabble?, which is why we try to wake up people who do not WANT to be woken up. I have been that way myself, but now see its better to focus on the quality of people around you then the quantity.

        • Dmitrie

          Are you talking to me or to someone else?
          Comments get kinda muddled on threads so its hard to tell 🙂

          • dmitrie

            OK… I dont say much elsewhere then what I say here, or to people faces for that matter.
            If you send an email to the address given below I will send you an email FROM MY REAL email if you want to chat. I’m a pretty boring chap TBH, so I dont do telegram or anything like that, sorry.

            THIS IS A THROW AWAY EMAIL…send me your email to it and I will write back. watch your spam folder, lol
            duckgoquack99@proton.me

            You best be fast, since Mr Corbett tends to delete email addresses (Though since its NOT MY REAL emil maybe he will let it fly…?) and if you have email alerts on (I never do that) maybe it will be in your email?

  21. James, I just wanted to say thank you for approaching this topic also from the point of view of how hard it can be to find your own people/community even when you join groups with like-minded people (and I mean in real life, not online). Not many people talk about this. This episode resonated a lot with me, and made me feel less weird 🙂

    My story is similar to one you used as example in the video.
    My partner and I haven’t given up finding our community, but instead of keep trying to force the creation of a “community” with people we didn’t really resonate with and could have not be friend with (even if we agreed on what is going on in the world), we decided to focus on making improvements in our own lives, to become more aligned with our own values. Slowly, after 18 months, we are happier, out of debt, with a growing garden and orchard, and with more time to contribute to the cause with our own online educational content. We hope that this will attract the right people and that a community can grow more or less organically from there…

    I’d also like to mention the course “The Complete Guide to Forming Communities” with Stefan Verstappen: https://www.chinastrategies.com/.
    For full disclosure, I haven’t taken this course yet (I will, very soon), but it does seem really interesting and to the point. I’m sharing it here in case someone else finds it helpful.

    • Giulia,

      Interesting…

      Sure, take the course, learn about the skills you need, but please be critical about the crucial differences in concepts of “parallel societies” (2min 45sec) or “Parallel Polis”. This is a deep subject, related to forming communities. Wikipedia is not clear about what those terms mean and what this “society” ought to be in practical terms.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_society

      What does Verstappen mean by these “parallel societies”? Does he mean just various “parallel communities” or does he have a bigger picture in mind of local “parallel society” or various “parallel societies” around the world, each with like-minded communities?

      I don’t think even Havel was clear enough about this:
      “The aim of the Parallel Polis, according to Vaclav Havel, Ivan Martin Jirous, Milan Šimečky and other dissidents who discussed the concept, should be an independent society not oppressed by laws and decisions of representatives of public authorities—a society based on its own values, which are not forced by the central authorities.”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Polis

      I would also be very careful about “imagery, archetypes, mythology”, or “Myths & Rituals” and mythology (p. 43-44 in the online abbrev. manual). Yes, these are important, if not crucial, for the proper cohesion of the community, but one must choose wisely or be very unhappy down the road.

      https://www.chinastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Guide-to-Forming-Communities-Abridged-Edition.pdf

  22. It looks like discussion in this thread is winding down. So here is a suggestion for James:

    Rather than dredge through the mud and weeds of many “boring” details of community forming, like detailed legal agreements, why not start from the other end, from should matter most – the aspects of happiness in the community. Music and singing have been the main source of happiness since time immemorial and they formed a crucial part of social cohesion.

    James, with his guitars in the background, must be a lover of music. So am I, and personally I would not want to join any community unless it was more or less in line with my ideas about happy music and singing. (I would tolerate good classical music, good country music, good “ethnic” music, etc., but I would refuse to join a Hip-hop or rap music community.)

    Perhaps James could post another Solutions Watch episode focused on “Music of community” and we could discuss the formation of communities from this “end” – what kind of music would make a community happy?

    ———-

    Verstappen is correct in a way, but I strongly disagree with him that it is the shared experience of “altered” states of consciousness that creates the strong group bonds. I think a good happy community must be based NOT on “altered” states but “real/realistic/conscious” states of consciousness. So good cooking smells like freshly baked bread, happy songs, collective singing, etc. are all positive and community-forming. But “intoxicants” are wrong and counterproductive.

    And I don’t mean beer or wine in moderation, which add to happiness and good mood, but dope, hard drugs, magic mushrooms and the like.

    “The combination of symbolism, color, music, rhythms, chanting or singing, smell (from incense, flowers, or cooking), and often the use of intoxicants, all contribute to alter the participant’s level of consciousness. It is the shared experience of altered states of consciousness that creates the strong group bonds and is the unseen purpose behind most ceremonies – the specifics of the ritual itself are relatively unimportant. p.40)

    https://www.chinastrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Guide-to-Forming-Communities-Abridged-Edition.pdf

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