Wherehouses can work too, but thats less my style and not as ideal if there is an economic or environmental collapse....which is purely speculative at this point, but not an unreasonable concern.

“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton

Your statement is one I have heard made by twenty-somethings for the last couple decades. I hear you, but I respectfully disagree. Case in point, if for generations if we had not observed that burying our poop versus leaving it in the corner of our caves, huts, or whatever; if we hadn't learned that from our elders, our parents, that burying our shit keeps us healthier, then i doubt we would be the dominant species on this planet. Imagine waking up each day not knowing what happened the day before. This would be an analog to the sociological outcome of what your suggesting.

I have learned by my mistakes to choose carefully from whom I learn. I now know how to sort the b.s. from the real and take away only what enhances me (and by extension, my environment). More life=more mistakes=more experience & wisdom; it doesn't however make a person honest or sincere or anything that makes a good mentor-type. Everyone is a little broken, some times they are totally full of it. Personally, I could never "...blindly accept guidance (or in this case, seemingly coercive direction) from our elders who supposedly know better... ." Neither should anyone. And if you are, or were; fer pete's sake WHY? But throwing the baby out with the bathwater is counterproductive.

You have the problem and the solution back to front. and a bit bigotted besides. the whole young v. old argument tires me. PEOPLE have the same NEEDS young or old, white or black, christian or muslim or jew. Your wants and desires divulge. There's your difference. But when planning it's a small concern compared to the needs of the overall population. We have to learn not to be selfish or impatient, our needs will be taken care of as long as we work toward the good of others in the community. And whatever time or resources remain we share to fulfill our wants and desires. Heck, that's how I grew up. It wasn't anarchic, but we had a clear line of communication and our parents generally listened if we weren't just being whiny little brats.

>>we have to learn first what works FOR US and for our generation, before we can take more obviously productive steps.

What if, you accept at the inception of your ideal community/society, that it has to have the quality of being organic and changeable in response to the needs of the community (ahm, not just 'young people'). The backsliding you mention is often a serious concern and addressed in our own society's founders writings. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. That's not talking about the national defense. It's about your freedom, my freedom. If you ignore it, it goes away. Same goes in an anarchist society. Self-awareness and personal accountability.

I suggest we take productive steps to learn what works for people and our planet ( both by looking at the mistakes and successes of those that went before, and trying new paradigms too.), and act to design our minds and goals toward that end.

J

I never said i don't like to think! or read!, i was implying that you are over-thinking things!
Reading from your armchair and talking down to people who you consider less informed than you (which appears to be everyone) is insanely counterproductive. Yes I do have many nihilist tendencies. So what? I do believe that some things need to get worse before they can get better. Isn't production through destruction a common thread in anarchism and nihilism?

I wasn't really trying to focus on options involving buying stuff, though I can see how the examples I gave may have given that impression. What I was really trying to say was that yes, there are steps we can all take to make the world at least a bit more anarchist-community-like by consciously choosing what we participate in and how we do that.

As much as possible, I take a sort of Zen-like approach to "stuff." It's all pretty much transitory, so I don't try to have either more or less just for the sake of quantity. As an example, I do have quite a few books. While I enjoy having them, I recently gave away some of my rarer ones to a friend whom I knew would appreciate them, though I knew there's a chance I may never see her again, and I've been offering some of my sci-fi collection to another friend who wants to get back into reading fiction after a long hiatus. I like to be able to share what I have, and I have a few objects with some sentimental value, but I don't like either to have something for the sake of having it or not have it for the sake of not having it. However, I can see how living on the road would pretty much necessitate traveling as light as possible, and I think that's a valid choice too.