Nurturing Individuals

In order to create Utopia, we must first create sustainable communities. In order to create sustainable communities, we must first nurture individuals to take part in communities.

The reason why some groups never form communities, while other groups coelesce into communities quickly, is that the individuals in communities require a certain maturity, and forming a community require individuals to take a leap of faith that is too much for some, but not for others. Returning to Christ's parable of a camel through the eye of a needle, the broken hearted and the meek may inherit the earth precisely because they are the ones who are ready and willing to become empty, to accept a new future, while the rich and famous are too full of the present, the happy indulgent materialistic moment, to surrender their control.

I believe that Utopia has a place for everyone, anyone, regardless of any notable difference in characteristics. No matter the race, sex, etc, the only requirement for a person to be in a community, and therefore our Utopia, is the willingness to commit to the hard work necessary to progress through the four stages of pseudocommunity, chaos, emptiness, and finally into community. This means the four tools of problem solving, and dealing with life's difficulties, must be a part of the participant's repertoire: delayed gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balance. These skills are not the special birth-right of any one group of people, nor are they exclusive to any one. Indeed, one of M. Scott Peck's insight into human nature is that to be human is to be able to change, to transform by a strength of will alone. With enough time and effort, anyone can achieve proficiency in these skills, and therefore, qualification to participation in a community.

The health of an individual is therefore predicated on the person's ability to change, to delay gratification in spite of media frenzy for impulse buying and almost uncontrollable desires, to accept responsibility for one's situation despite of life's difficulties and injustice, to dedicate one's daily living by principles based on truth, rather than falsehoods, lies, or fantasies, and most of all, to live with balance and moderation, never falling victim to the deceptively attractive road of extremism.

The responsibility of society, or a sustainable community, is to nurture each and every individual towards healthy independence, living according to these principles, and avoiding the pitfalls of easy and exciting living. The ones who need nurturing the most, are those with the least power or influence over their lives, the poor. Until a society has learned to care and nurture for all its poor, it can never reach Utopia, which is, by definition, a society where even the poor is happy.