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Intentioneering
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Rational Altruism
The Egalitarian Commonwealth building a Parallel Culture
Culture Magic
Home
Time-Based Economy
Material Spirituality
Mass Movement
Manual

Shared Leadership
in our Time of Change
The parallel culture is a "chaordic" or chaotically-ordered, evolving network of intentional communities, affirming the balance of individual needs with social and environmental responsibility.

In contrast to the dominant culture, which may be described as affirming individuality over collectivity in an increasingly hierarchical, authoritarian government by the wealthy, and which in the extreme may be called "plutocratic fascism," the decentralized, participatory, economically-diverse culture balancing common and private ownership creates a parallel culture, which may be called the "egalitarian commonwealth."

The term "commonwealth" suggests prosperity through popular sovereignty, and the term "egalitarian" can be used to refer to political equality and/or economic equality. Thus, the egalitarian commonwealth is any socio-cultural group, from intentional community to the parallel culture to the nation-state, which balances both sharing and exchange economies, while also balancing forms of direct and representative democracy.

The links on this page are to documents presenting various forms of political-economic structures, as related to intentional community and to the dominant culture, and links to documents on practical applications of the theory of the egalitarian commonwealth as a parallel culture.

The first item, Mass Movement Manual, offers tools for community groups to organize the study, analysis, teaching and creation of cultural progressivism. The opening article presents one topic for such work, the issue of the role of spirituality and religion in politics and governance, and how these factors may be related to a progressive political agenda.

Classifications of Communitarianism provides an overview of the full range of political-economic structures for describing any scale of human society, from small groups to civilization as a whole, and the changes in them over time. Political-economic structures are also related to spiritual perspectives.

ÉLAN presents forms of collective intentional community less expensive than cohousing communities, including examples of financial strategies and legal structures suited to them, such as the partnership and cooperative corporation models, with sample financial and legal documents.

Geonomics and Community Power presents the theory of land value and the community land trust designs utilizing it.

Community, Inc. includes discussions of a range of different legal structures used by some intentional communities. Material on the cohousing form of intentional community is not yet included. Cohousing will be added in a future update.

The rest of the documents linked to this page provide a range of discussions and resources explaining aspects of the egalitarian commonwealth and of the parallel culture.

Click to open graphic below in a new window. This graphic is found in the document at left, "Classifications of Communitarianism."
Classifications of Communitarianism Sharing, Privacy and the Ownership and Control of Wealth
ÉLAN:
Equity-Linked Affinity Network
Interpersonal Process, Financial Structures and Legal Designs for Landed, Spirited, Joyous Urban Community
Geonomics and Community Power The Community Land Trust and the Public Benefits of Taxing Unearned Income
Community, Inc.
Legal Structures for Intentional Community
Democracy and Capitalism
Are they Critical Elements of a Climax Human Culture?
Worker-Ownership Introduction and Resources
Forms of Legal Organization
Parallel Culture
Process - Consensus