It’s Not Easy Being Green
Hippie Communes
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work, and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes.
Today most people are seeking to create a new type of community where the housing is more affordable and the people who are members are already known to each other. People who create and reside in the communities are seeking a return to a better way of life. There are many contemporary intentional communities all over the world, a list of which can be found at the Fellowship for Intentional Community.
Hippie communes became alternatives to the traditional family. Although the hippy movement, (albeit very different in ideas amongst its followers), changed the traditional values of a traditional world, by openly trying out alternative ways of living.
Vegetarians and environmentalists gained ground and now they are respected alternatives, although there is still a long way to go until the latter may be considered socially accepted as normal.
Core principles of communes
The central characteristics of communes, and the definition of what a commune is, have changed over the years. In the 1960s, almost any counter-cultural, rural, intentional community was called a commune. At the start of the 1970s, communes were regarded by Ron E. Roberts in his book, "The New Communes", as being a subclass of the larger category of Utopias.
Three main characteristics were listed. First, egalitarianism - communes specifically rejected having a “boss” or “leader”. Second, human scale - members of communes saw the scale of society as it was then organized as being too large. Third, communes were consciously anti-bureaucratic. Twenty five years later, Dr. Bill Metcalf, in his book "Shared Visions, Shared Lives" defined communes as having the following core principles: the importance of the group, a "common purse," a collective household, group decision making in general and intimate affairs. Sharing everyday life and facilities, a commune is an idealized form of family, being a new sort of "primary group" (generally with fewer than 20 people). Commune members have emotional bonds to the whole group rather than to any sub-group, and the commune is experienced with emotions which go beyond just social collectivity