Thoughts by founder Anthony Weston
It seems the Engaging with our Vision Retreat (January 27-28, 2018) did us the great service of bringing questions to the fore — issues that are fundamental, not easy, but that need to be articulated and addressed as we carry on and ramp up this work together.
I cannot speak for everyone (and do need to note that “founders” is not a defined or in any way decision-making group in our governance or organization) but here at least is my take.
Fundamentally we want to be an agrarian ecovillage. This does mean that our primary endeavor is ecological — it has to do with how we relate to the larger living world and consequently as a human community within the more-than-human world. It would be a radical thing to create a community that simply modeled and realized a “regenerative” kind of ecology in the most concrete way — in terms of what kinds of buildings and physical village we build and how we feed and power ourselves, how the land fares under our stewardship. Yes. Indeed this would be itself an act of “social activism” in the world as it stands.
But: we (meaning me and I believe others who share this way of thinking) also hold that “ecology” or “sustainability” or “regeneration” do not stop there. Human communities also are situated within the larger human world, so there is an ecology of human relations situated with the more-than-human ecology too. Very specifically: if we form an all-white community in the midst of a racially mixed area, moreover with all the history of race-based exclusion and dis-empowerment (even in the ownership history of our very land), etc. etc. we would be failing to acknowledge and regenerate the human ecology that we and others also live within, and that is actually continuous with the land, the larger ecology, too. After all, traditional southern agrarian society was also deeply racist. We are after a new kind of agrarianism in those terms too. So the project of outreach and diversity so viewed is not an “add on” or something that might just be taken up as a personal, outside-the-community commitment (though it certainly can be that too), but is essential to the constitution of the community itself.
At least we must seriously try, and continue to try, to create a racially diverse and responsive community that does not just re-inscribe the old social relations. For my part I am willing to go ahead with financing, design, and construction work even if these efforts have not yet borne much fruit — as long as we do not let go of them but truly intensify our efforts. (I am not sure this is true for everyone, though I think it probably is.) I think this provides a pretty clear way forward for most members, including most or even all of those who spoke up on this issue at the retreat. This will remain a place where members have varied views, but I think we can still readily head in broadly the same direction.
There are major decisions to be made, for sure; there are major obstacles; we are attempting something wonderful and at the same time multi-faceted and difficult and there are no guarantees. At the same time, though, I have such a sense of a huge project taking major steps forward all the time – beyond any one person’s capacity even to sum it up. And very little of this is seriously controversial to anyone. We may want a different balance or focus between the various parts… we may worry about where the money is coming from, etc. etc. — again, all valid for sure — but the fact is that we have an energetic, stable, almost stately project going here that I believe does not warrant dismay and is not particularly confused about itself or consumed by some sort of internal conflict.
Of course it may be that the ambition and range of the HM project are not for everyone. I know, not everyone can wait for the village proper. None of us want to wait. Still, what we have going is fairly clear-sighted, and I think that project was basically reaffirmed and even somewhat further clarified at the retreat. It’s that very clarity that is leading some people to re-evaluate their commitment to HM — and again, that certainly can make sense. But the project itself remains strong and dynamic. Hope gave voice to this at the Retreat (I am tempted to be cute and say that Voice gave hope to this at the Retreat too) when she said that this project has gotten to be bigger than any of us. Long live Hart’s Mill!
