The Way It Could Be.

Part 4/12.

Pete plunged into the dark, quite familiar with the way, but Mike stumbled a few times until they reached the sparsely lit lane.

“Tell me something about the committees? What’s this one for?”

“Well you could say the town is run mostly by voluntary committees at the neighbourhood level. They look after things like the workshop. There’s one that deals with the community fruit and nut trees. They decide when pruning and spraying and picking are needed and they might do some of that or arrange a community working bee. There are committees for water and energy and the library and the wood lots and the ponds, and one for looking after old people, and one for leisure and entertainment, and even one for quality of life.”

“Wait a minute, what do you mean, looking after old people?”

“Well many old people live around here. Mostly they don’t move out of the house they’ve lived in for years to end up in a nursing home. Apart from being a very expensive way to look after old people those so-called homes are not places most of us want to end up in. So around here we make it possible for old people to stay at home. That takes some organising. In some cases someone needs to drop-in a few times a day. The house might need repairs. Outings and events are arranged. Those things are overseen by a little group of volunteers. That’s the looking-after-old-people committee.”

“Must be a huge amount of work.”

“No. Actually most of the looking after is done spontaneously by all the people around here. See we’ve all got the time to do things like drop in. The committee just oversees and thinks about anything else that needs organising, but the people who live here do the dropping in and occasional cooking of a meal or taking someone to the doctor, or just having a chat or helping with a bit of housework.”

“How do you get on a committee? Does someone allocate you?”

“Mostly it’s just that someone takes an interest and goes along to the meetings. If there’s enough people involved there they might think about helping somewhere else. Sometimes a committee will call for more members. Maybe someone will decide to take a break for a while or maybe that committee can be a bit bigger for a while. It’s all very informal and easy-going. Not that there aren‘t conflicts at times.”

“But why do people volunteer for committees? What’s in it for them?”

“Well you can see that the welfare of people around here depends very much on how well these community services are carried out. If those windmills aren’t kept in good working order our electricity supply from them will go down and we will have to pay for more electricity from the national grid. Or if our fish ponds aren’t kept in good order we won’t have fresh fish. So everyone knows it’s important that we organise ourselves to look after these things. Everyone knows that if they do their bit on this or that committee or working bee others will be attending to the other tasks that need doing and we’ll all get the things we depend on from this area. So people have a strong inclination to offer their services on committees and to turn up to working bees. It’s uneven though. I mean some people do much more than others, some really love poultry or bees, or spend a lot of time on the library team. And that’s OK.”

”But surely some people don’t pull their weight, don’t contribute at all,” Mike said.

“Not really. Very few people do less then they should. Sure it is quite uneven, but like with the working bees it simply doesn’t matter if some do less than they should. There are some people who everyone knows are sloppy or a bit lazy, but that doesn‘t matter much. Most of us do turn up and get the jobs done and that means we can all enjoy good fresh food and a convenient workshop and so on. Our situation isn’t threatened if a few don’t pull their weight. And remember it’s not as if we’re having to do more of some terrible task because someone else hasn’t turned up. Most people really like doing these things.”

“Hey do I recall you saying you even have a committee for quality of life? What’s that do?”

“Ah, probably the most important committee in town. It monitors objective indices, like how much illness, crime, storm damage, and it also monitors subjective things like interview and survey evidence on how happy people are, what problems they have, what they think needs to be changed. They make reports to the town, including recommendations, and they hold public meetings. Sometimes they’ll focus on what some group’s situation is like. At present they’re reviewing the situation of old people again; they do that every few years.”

Soon the workshop came into view and Mike was surprised at how lit up and active it was. They went inside and up the stairs, past several busy people. Looking at their rough-sawn timber and black bolt heads Mike realised how like a barn or a warehouse the whole building was. No slick polished plastic surfaces or elaborate fittings. Everything was rough but honest. Not much paint, just natural wood mostly. The windows and doors were different sizes and shapes, obviously recycled from many different places. He remarked on this to Pete who said, “Yes, we like things as cheap and simple as possible, so long as they’re convenient and efficient and durable. I like being here and we like its atmosphere. It’s a very resource-cheap facility. And because most of the carpentry is rough beams and boards there’s no problem when the kids knock things around or someone spills a can of paint.”

They had been standing at the top of the stairs and could hear voices in a nearby room. Pete went across, pushed a door open and said, “Hi there. Here we are. Are you in the middle of something; we can come back a bit later.”

Someone said, “No. Come on in.”

Mike entered a room in which five people were seated or reclining in a variety of chairs and bean bags. A couple were quite elderly but one was a teenage girl.

“Everybody, this is Mike.” People quickly introduced themselves and Pete said, “What are you up to?”

“We’ve been looking again at how to increase the capacity of the methane digesters in Ash St. Over the last three years two families have moved in to that area and that means more waste water is going into the tanks and out again before the waste has had time to digest properly, so we aren’t getting as much gas from them as we could.”

“Do you know what garbage gas digesters are?” Pete asked Mike.

“Not really.”

“They’re basically just tanks that sewage goes into from the houses and public toilets and animal pens. They produce methane gas, and the effluent is recycled to our gardens and orchards. That’s why no artificial fertilizers are used around here.”

“We use the gas to run some of our fridges and cars. There are two neighbourhood cars out the front. Most people rarely need a car but if they do they can take one of these two.”

“Take one?” Mike said.

“Yes, you sort of hire it really, just sign for it and record the distance you travelled and pay later.”

Mike asked, “Isn’t there a central authority that controls water and sewage around here?”

“Yeah, that’s us,” said Noel. “We get assistance from the Regional Council in special circumstances, say there’s been a big problem, like drought or flood. But we supply most of our own water here in this town, from rainwater off our roofs and stored in tanks and from the small dams in the hills, and we look after the gas digesters and the pipes that treat the wastes and deliver them where they’re needed, all through this committee and then the working bees. You realise I assume that all the wastes going into the digesters are really valuable nutrients that have to be returned to the soil. You can’t have a sustainable society unless you do that. This committee just keeps an eye on these systems. Judy and I are paid part time as water and sewage experts, but the rest of us are volunteers. In small settlements you don’t need a paid bureaucracy for most things. If something needs fixing this committee might do it or we;llarrange for the next neighbourhood working bee to do it.”

“What about health standards?” Mike said.

“Well all that’s pretty simple. Lots of places in the world have been recycling their waste nutrients to their local soils for eons. It is quite safe to do if you just take simple precautions, like drip irrigating fruit trees. But there are regional inspectors who check the systems now and then to make sure they’re up to standard.”

“And Noel is an engineer, and if we need other technical advice there are other professionals living around here we can call in.”

“But almost all the time and effort needed to run the system comes from this community, in a voluntary and informal way.”

“So what have you decided to do in Ash St?’” Mike asked.

“Oh we don’t do the deciding. We just think out the possibilities and the pros and cons. This item will be on the agenda of the town meeting after next. But it looks as if we will be suggesting construction of a new digester. Some of us think its not so necessary yet, so we’ll have to write up the arguments for and against so people can consider them at their leisure before the vote.”

He turned to his fellow committee members. “Well, what are the options? Obviously one is to put in more tank capacity, but where and how much?”

“Look at the contour map there. It seems to me that we’d be wise to put a tank down the slope here, because the new apple orchard is going down the bottom isn’t it?“

“Has that been settled yet?”

“Yes. Last week.”

“OK then that does make some sense -- gravity feed to the tank from the three new houses and then gravity to drip irrigate the orchard.”

“And will that enable some of the input to the existing tanks to be diverted to the new one?”

“Can we be sure they won’t overload in wet weather even without input from the three new houses?”

“We’ll have to get some measures on that. That’s a job for when we meet there on Saturday. I’ll also check what Fred say about it. His opinion might clinch it. He’ll have the numbers from that study five years ago.”

“What are the other options?”

“Well a tank could go back of Jordon’s fence, that’s central for the three and it would need much less pipe. There’s not much slope to that spot though, but it would serve them. Remember that there might be more houses there some day. We need to provide for that possibility don’t we?”

“Don’t know. I mean that hasn’t been discussed much. Is that where new houses are most likely to go, if we ever want any more that is?”

“Well at least we’ll have to list that consideration when we set out the issue for public discussion.”

“Even if we do have more houses there some time I think the site down the slope is the right one. More pipes would be needed yes but there’s all the slope below the orchard that could be served some day, from that tank.”

“OK, we’ll have to set out those options and approximate costing and working bee time. Noel you can handle that can’t you.”

“Yes. Fred has all the information for that. He’ll tell us what we have to do there. When do we need the estimate?”

“Not urgently. We’re supposed to put up the options paper by Monday next week.”

“There’s also the question of the best line for the input pipes. The direct routes for two of them will go through established gardens. It wouldn’t be much more costly to go around but those options will have to be set out too.”

“Good point. Look at the map there. Damn. This one’s the shortest but it would go through Paddy’s fruit trees. I guess that’s out.”

“Yes, but spell it out in the report as an option, although I guess we’ll recommend the longer way for that one. Any other considerations?”

“We’d want the job done before the wet season wouldn’t we?”

“I think so. There’ve been overflow problems there already.”

“We’ll put that in the paper too. It’ll take a few working bees but I think working bee committee can organize it before the rains. I don’t think they have a lot to get us through before then.”

“OK I’ll knock out a draft statement of how we see it and get it to you all in a day or so, and we should be able to put up a cleaned up version by Wednesday. Anything else we’ve overlooked on this one?”

After a pause, “OK. Next item. A few people have said too much rain water is getting away down the slope below The Basin and the swales there need some work. Anyone familiar with that?”

“I was there last time it rained and I didn’t see a problem. The run off was going into the Smith St hollow well enough, and it soaked in within a day or so, but that was light rain.”

“Yes, that’s the problem. We don’t know whether we’re losing some in heavy rain.”

“Well the Anderson’s think we are, but they don’t know how much.”

“Looks like we should get clearer about the situation when it does rain a lot.”

“Yes we can’t really do anything until we know. So we should all remember to go look at it when there’s heavy rain. I’ll put a note on our fridge. In any case is taking the water to Smith St the best option? Wouldn’t it be better if we could take it the other way, into the slope off Maple Lane, where the wood lots are?”

The next item was to do with a report on the desirability of trying out a new type of tank. After some discussion they again decided to make the information available but with some critical notes about uncertainties the report left.

Then Bill turned to Pete, “Why don’t you guys go down to Mario’s for a coffee. This stuff must be boring you. We have three more items to go. Go on, clear out.”

“OK,” said Pete, “We’ll go, but Jan’s getting supper so we’ll go straight back home.”

“Pete, don’t tell Mike how confused we sometimes get. Let him think this was a typical meeting, eh?”

“Of course. We’ll go then. Thanks everybody. Oh, did you see the grapefruit we left on the surplus table. We lugged our crop up earlier. Make sure you check if there are any left.”

“Bye.”

There were more people in the main hall at Marios than when they had come in and as they went through someone began playing a fiddle, competing with faint hammering coming from the workshop.

Suddenly the lights dimmed and Mike had to stop moving for fear of colliding with something. He was just getting his bearings when some weird music started playing and an eerie blue light came on. Then a giant cat appeared, human sized and irridescent. It began to dance out from his left, into the small space in the center of the tables. Pete leaned over and said, “Black light dancing.”

“What’s that?”

“Ultraviolet light; costume has markings on it that react to the light.”

The cat stretched and crept and pounced and preened itself, for a minute or two, and then curled up and went to sleep, with the music providing the loud purring. Then someone called “Puss,Puss!” and the cat sprang awake, and bounded out of the room, and the lights came on. People cheered and laughed. Mike and Pete again headed for the door. As they walked into the dark Mike said, “Strewth. What was that all about?”

“Who knows.” Said Pete. “Things like that happen all the time. Probably one of the kids in the dance group. You can be sitting there and, bang, something like that will hit like a tornado, unannounced, then disappear. Someone just thought it would be a fun thing to do. Mind you that space is set up for performances, with lots of hidden lights and switches out in the workshop near the gallery railings where someone can work them out of sight. Pity you won’t be here for poetry night. People just stand up and read bits of their writing, some serious some funny.”

“What did Bill mean about being confused?”

“Oh that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Its just that often a committee realizes issues are more complicated than they thought and they just can’t proceed without getting more information. I’m on the forest committee and the youth committee and we often realize that an issue is more complicated than we thought and we can’t get anywhere without getting more measurements or doing some interviewing. But that’s OK; that’s what were there to do.”

“So tell me how it works. They said the committees don’t make the decisions, but the town meetings do. What are they? How do they work?”

“The water committee will type up how they see the options at this point in time and let us know by when they want feedback. Then they’ll review the situation, taking in the information they themselves will have got by then, and maybe put up the revised analysis, or their recommendations for adoption. Sometimes the clarification and sorting out goes on and on a for a long time, because some issues are quite complicated and it takes time for us all to become sure about what’s best. So at some point the issue will get onto the agenda for a town meeting or a referendum.”

“Referendum?”

“Yes. Sometimes the vote will be a show of hands at the meeting, but on some big issues there will be a written vote, so a clear statement of what the preferences were can be recorded.”

“How often are the meetings?”

“Once a month. There’s actually one tomorrow night. A special one can be called in between though. But it is important to understand that the meetings and votes are not very important. They just formalise and finalise the decision which has usually already become quite clear.”

“How’s that?”

“Well the important part is the long messy process of discussion between people, and the committee slowly getting the necessary information to us, and clarifying options and implications. We make sure that things are not hurried, so that everyone has time to come to a confident view about what the best option is. The crucial mechanism here is all the informal discussion that goes on, over dinner table, in the street, at the market. This is how people slowly sort things out and move towards agreement about what’s best. Usually it becomes clear what we all think is the way to go, and then someone will put the item on the agenda for the next town meeting. Mind you someone there might take it off again?

“What?”

“It’s always possible for someone to say, ‘Look, I don’t think we should decide that yet because quite a few of us still aren’t sure’. If it is clear that many are unsure or there’s considerable difference of opinion we defer it, and highlight the problems or the difficulties that need more thought.”

“Why don’t you just vote and do what the majority says? That’s how democracies work isn’t it? Save a lot of time.”

“Ah, no, no, and for two very important reasons. First it would be most unwise to push something through if many aren’t yet sure it’s a good idea. It’s no good if we do something lots of people will be unhappy about. After all the point is to find ways and solutions that maximize satisfaction and welfare around here. See, I want an outcome that others are happy with, for their sake, so it’s not satisfactory to me if I get what I want passed but many people are unhappy about it. That doesn’t make for a good town atmosphere and it would mean I’d run into people who know I was one who forced them to accept an outcome they didn’t want. Strong social cohesion is absolutely crucial here. The town can’t work well unless we all get along fairly harmoniously and keep up happy willingness to contribute. So it’s best to go on looking for a solution all think is the best for all in the circumstances.”

“And the second reason?”

“Yes, that’s the important one. The point of our politics is not about struggle between groups each out to get what’s best for themselves at the expense of others, in a zero sum competition. It’s to get the right answer for the town. Think about the digester example. People are asking themselves what in fact would be the best option to maximise efficiency of nutrient reuse, minimise work, minimise inconvenience to Paddy and his orchard. We almost never have an issue where the vote is about which interest group is going to get the decision that favours them and denies the interests of some other group. Its almost always a vote about what is the best strategy in view of the need for the town to function well. So if at a point in time we see that there’s much dissent and uncertainty then obviously we aren’t clear about what the best strategy is, either technically or in the sense of what suits people best. So then it makes sense not to make a decision but to have more discussion and thought.”

“That’s a bit incredible, that you’re all such super-nice people, trying to avoid what would upset others.”

“No, no. That misses the point. It’s not essentially about being nice to each other. The crucial thing is that the town will not work well if we don’t find the right answers, the technical ways that will in fact work well, and the arrangements that will not damage the local ecosystems we all depend on, or harm social cohesion. And it would be a serious mistake to go with a decision a lot of people are unhappy about. So there’s a powerful incentive on all to try to find the way that’s best for all and not to think just in terms of your own self-interest.”

“So you are saying I think that the process is not adversarial.”

“Yes, that’s right. That makes an enormous difference. Look, we’re heavily dependent on our local ecosystems, our water sheds, our forests and soils, and on our social cohesion, because our food and jobs and security and entertainment come from them. So we have to be sure we do what is best for our environmental and social systems, and that makes our politics very different to yours. Ours is essentially about working out what is the best policy for the region, whereas your’s is mostly about groups struggling to get what they want from government at the expense of others. So here the incentives that come from our situation are right -- they push us to think carefully and to look for what’s best for all. Think about that forest on the mountain.” Pete said pointing into the dark. ”Much of our water comes from that slope, and Petersen owns some of. Now what if he proposed developing a motel on it? He as much as the rest of us knows that would jeopardise our very existence. You lot in consumer society won’t go about politics in a cooperative way until you get into our situation, highly conscious of our dependence on keeping your locality and your social cohesion in good shape.”

“But isn’t it a sloppy, inefficient form of government, if it takes so long to make a decision and you have to get most people to agree, and anyone can block it?”

“No. It’s messy, and sometimes very slow. But you’re defining efficient as quick and decisive. If that’s all you want, yes let’s set a date and all vote. But that way you will not get good decisions, decisions that as many as possible are happy with. When that’s the goal you can see that this messy way is in fact the most efficient way to achieve it.”

“But you couldn’t run a country like that.”

“Precisely! That’s a knock out argument for not having big things if you can help it. It’s the smallness of scale that enables us to do it our way. Everyone can discuss the issue, everyone can participate. Then everyone feels they own the decision. And often our way is actually much faster than yours. Think about how slow your bureaucracies often are. Takes months just to get a letter back from them, let alone until the bulldozers turn up. We can call an emergency meeting and get working bees on an urgent job next day.”

As they approached the veranda steps Mike nearly tripped over something large that got as big a surprise as he had, and bolted. It was a shaggy black seep.

“Oh, that’s Padme, one of the village lawn mowers. Terry must have brought her over.”

“Don’t you have a proper mower?”

“Yes, Padme!”

“Doesn’t she eat the garden?”

“No. She’s tethered to a peg and can only reach the edge of the grass. The garden edge is circular. Back to work Pad. Never breaks down, never needs oiling. No problem starting on cold mornings. And she’s a nice person. And did you see her coat? Jan’s still spinning from last years clip. Terry and Dot will get three or four jumpers out of her this year. They spin and weave and knit you see. Some of our jumpers come from them. I have one that’s ten years old. Hand knitted jumpers are terrific, long lasting. Mind you I’ve patched that one up many times.” Then he called out, “We’re back.”

“Kettle’s on. Heard you coming,” Jan called back. “How’d the committee go?”

“We left early but they made some progress on the digester problem. Did you know one of the options would take one of the input lines through Paddy’s orchard, or have to kink around it and that would lower the gradient of the pipe. Noel’s not sure there’ll be enough slope if it goes around.”

“Oh dear, that makes a difference. I don’t think I’d agree with running it through

Paddy’s. I know Peta wouldn’t want that either.”

“The working bees would minimise any damage of course, and replant if necessary.”

“Yes but it would be a mess for Paddy. He’d agree with it going though I know if that was the best route, but I don’t think we should inflict it on him, not at his age. It would take a long time for the garden to get back to normal.”

“Well, we’ll see what people think after the options go up.”

Mike asked, “Would Paddy have to accept it going through his orchard if you all concluded that that was the best way?”

“Oh no. The problem is that if that’s the best way for technical reasons Paddy will probably say do it, and then we’d have to decide whether to. I’d want to vote against that because I know it would be inconvenient for him.”

They sat down at the kitchen table to tea and too many scones and cakes again. Gran was in her chair in the corner knitting.

“Nearly the end of your first day Mike,” said Pete. “What are you thinking?”

Mike paused. “Well that’s actually a difficult question.”

“I thought it might be. I think we know how difficult it must be to sort us out. We know our ways are rather different to where you come from.”

Mike was very conscious of having been uncharacteristically quiet and acquiescent through the second half of the day. He’d been taken over, hijacked almost, and run off his feet, and bamboozled with many strange ideas and claims. He felt a mixture of attraction to many things, especially the manicured landscape, and a kind of unease, even discontent about other things. And he was still feeling a bit cranky about Fran’s house. The combined indigestion now triggered a floodgate.

“Yes, rather different,” he began slowly. “I guess my main problem is that I can’t see how things really work here. I mean, I can grasp the obvious, like the free fruit and the beautiful landscape and the working bees keeping the windmills painted. But a lot doesn’t seem to add up. I don’t understand the economy, and I don’t understand…well … I guess the motivation. It’s as if everyone’s on holidays, and no one’s working and everyone is pottering at something, not working, and artificially nice and cooperative…as if there must be difficulties and grind that I’m not seeing. It’s a bit hard to explain…”

“What am I doing now Michael?” Gran interrupted.

He looked up, surprised, “Well…knitting.”

“Yes but am I working. I’m making a jumper for Amy. Am I working?”

“Well…”

“I’m doing it because there’s nothing I would rather do right now. I love knitting. It’s my art form.”

“One of them Gran. Muffins are another, and spinning..,”

“And it keeps my fingers nimble, and I like making things for Amy. So am I working or playing. Is this work or leisure?”

“I don’t know,” said Mike.

“Nor do I,” said Gran. “So the distinction is useless. The point is that people around here spend almost all their time doing what they want to do, you could say playing, but at the same time they are getting work done, producing. What about that lettuce we had in the salad. We produced that by doing something we love doing, gardening.”

“Yes I can see that, but it bothers me. That kind of motivation can’t be sufficient. See, where I come from work is definitely work, and it makes the world go round. It’s relentless grind and it’s hard, mostly. Sometimes it is very satisfying, like when I get a good article in without the sub-editors butchering it too much. But, you have to push yourself most of the time. Like, no one would voluntarily get out of bed on a Saturday morning and go to work because that’s where they most want to be.”

“We do!” Jan bust in. Mike didn’t seem to notice.

“I don’t see that sort of energy, grit, drive, pushing yourself, the striving or whatever it is that has built the world despite difficulty. I mean in my office you see it in the competitive achievement, the struggle to be better, to get your story accepted, to get the promotion. It’s a kind of quiet fire-in–the-belly aggression, determination to win through, get there. See, in my world without that sort of gritty, fighting, don’t-let-the-bastards-beat-you, working fighting spirit you just go down. You don’t make it. You might not get trampled, but you’ll end up stagnating in some back room. You have to apply yourself, because life’s difficult and competitive. We can’t all be sub-editor, but I could. So I have to go after that as hard as I can, or stay where I am, and if I don’t perform so well there I won’t even stay there. I mean if my game slips noticeable I’ll be sacked and if I get to be sub-editor then Dan won’t, because there’s only one vacancy coming up and its me or Dan. You have to be tough, resilient. I’m not complaining about this. I’m saying that’s the way the world is, for humans in modern society. It’s the competitive situation that makes us work and strive, and gets things done and gets us to innovate and build and create great things, and important in all this must be that aggressive, disciplined determination to push onward, work, grind, get through, achieve, win, get to the top….that somehow I don’t see here, and I can’t see how things can really function well without it. I’m not putting this very well I know. But…things here seem …nice, maybe too nice and too relaxed. Sure it’s all very cute, and Nineteenth century, hand tools for Pete’s sake, but its not modern and its not driven by hard work or ambition or desire to rise and get ahead. If people here seem content to…I guess stagnate, to sit in the sun when they could be building something bigger and better, then…I mean I don’t understand how things can tick over then. So I keep thinking I’m only seeing the surface and there must be dynamics underneath that make it work, that I can’t see and that when I do understand them I’ll see how the basic human nature, motivation is there and driving things after all.”

Mike had hunched forward, elbows on knees, staring at the fire, as if to eliminate distractions from the task of articulating his thoughts. No one spoke for a few seconds.

Then Pete said slowly, “That’s very, very interesting. I think you are onto some very crucial things here. I mean things that are to do with the essential differences between our way and the mainstream’s way. To me it is indeed very much to do with the kind of motivation and world view you put.

Jan said, ”You‘ve jumped us into tomorrow’s agenda Mike. Today we’ve only shown you the easy stuff, the landscape, the workshop, how we make cheap houses, where good food can come from. That’s the technically easy realm. Tomorrow we want to introduce you to the hard stuff, the systems and values and mentality and motivation people have here, and how very different they are from where you come from, and how your people can’t do what we have done here unless they change in these much more difficult areas.”

“I think you put it well Michael,” Gran said. “But I think your underlying assumptions are profoundly and tragically wrong, and responsible for much of what’s wrong with the world.”

“Really. What do you mean?” said Mike, revealing surprise.

“You are assuming that that syndrome of grind, ambition, striving, restless energy, obligation to achieve, succeed, the need to compete, the need to be aggressive, is both inevitable and desirable, that it builds civilization, it motivates and gets the effort out of us, it produces progress, and without it we’d all still be sitting on the beach waiting for the coconuts to drop. Am I right?”

“I suppose that’s what I mean. Obviously you can have too much aggression and competition, but what matters surely is the drive and discipline to work hard, the determination to achieve despite the difficulties, overcoming, the striving to develop yourself and to develop things. And yes when you look at where we’ve come from, living in caves, you have to say it’s that striving to achieve, explore, conquer even, tame the rivers, clear the forest, dig the mines, grow a corporation, built the cities, beat the opposition…all that takes energy, dedication, self-discipline, effort, work…determination to get through, to produce, to come out on top, solve the problem.”

Mike paused again. Suddenly Pete threw his head back, opened his mouth wide and let out the most disgusting, rumbling, protracted and contrived burp, ending in a long satisfied “Aaaaagh!”, and then looked around the room with the grin of a half-drunken oaf who just knows he has pulled off the funniest performance and all will applaud, when in fact it has been the most appalling social blunder.

Jan said quietly “Oh, no,” and put her head in her hands.

Mike was totally stunned, with no idea what to make of it, or how to respond. Even inflappable Gran had stopped knitting. What the hell was going on?

The silence was difficult, and long.

Then Pete smiled faintly, sighed, and said quietly, “Sorry Mike. Let me try to explain. Sometimes mere words are not enough to make a point. Have you heard the one about the babbling devotee who came to visit the guru and wouldn’t stop talking and talking and the guru poured tea for him, and when the cup was full he just kept pouring and pouring as it ran everywhere, and then finally he said, ‘Sometimes when the vessel is too full in the first place it is impossible to get anything new into it.’ I’ll bet that neophyte remembered that for ever.”

…

“What I’m struggling with here is how to get across to you something that mere words can’t convey very well. See, the world view you described is in my view just so profoundly mistaken and tragic, and in fact repulsive, ugly. I must stress I don’t mean to attack you personally here. I have only known you about eight hours and you seem to be a very nice person. But you also seem to me to be very conventional in the view of the world and of humans and of life that you take for granted. And if I just used words I do not think I could convey to you how appalling and revolting I find that world view. So, how did you feel when I burped. No need to answer…”

Mike cut him off, “Staggered. Very shocked…disgusted. It was like being in awe looking at a great painting and some oafish ignorant boor comes and kicks his muddy boot right through it. It sort of train wreck contradicted, smashed, the nice image of this Pete fellow I’d formed over, what is it, eight hours.”

“Well…”

“Yes, I see, I think. That’s how you reacted to my world view.”

“Yes, something like that. I don’t mean I was surprised. I know that’s how you think, but it is essential for your whole visit here that we get across to you the magnitude and the significance of the difference. Our culture is not just utterly opposed logically to the one you sketched, but we have to get across to you how strongly we reject it, how much we dislike it, how morally objectionable it is, and how responsible for the world’s pain…”

Mike said, through a forced smile, “How can you say that? I’m really only stating the fundamental world view and moral creed cherished by all people in normal society. It’s built into the world we have. And you’re trashing it.”

After a few seconds silence Pete said, “I remember once seeing a documentary on the British fighting the French in Canada. At one point this small band deep in the forest was being attacked by the native Indians. There was this scared huddle of red coats in the wilderness, being picked off, 5000 miles from home and unlikely to ever see it again. And you say to yourself, ‘What the hell are the poor fools doing there. Curse the English and their damned restless energy. Why couldn’t they have stayed home and just taken it easy in their gardens and villages and pubs.’ But no, they have to be so damned driven to go out and develop and conquer and take and dominate, and so ready to work so hard at it, even to risk their precious lives. Can’t stand still, must expand, must master, must get more, must push the other bastards off and take what they have. Look at the trouble that has caused. Contemplate the glorious British Empire, established by no less than 72 colonial wars in which god knows how many natives and peasants were slaughtered and their lands stolen. Why couldn’t they have been content with what they had and just tended their gardens and relaxed, and if they want a sense of progress then develop better conversational skills or write better plays? The detestable, pathetic Western mentality!”

Silence, except for the clicking of Gran’s needles.

“So, go get it, can do, master conquer…does all that really build a better world, or just acquire more wealth for the most energetic few? Your world is led by CEOs who are obscenely rich in the first place, but the only thing in their heads, the thing that leads them to sack thousands, the thing you allow to be the sole determinant of where your whole economy and society go, is their manic, frenzied obsession with making even more money and building an even bigger, leaner, meaner corporation. And you all not only tolerate it, you applaud. If your purpose was to do what is best for people and for the environment, would you allow that pathological motivation to have any place at all? It contradicts what we need, which is an overriding commitment to the welfare of other people and of the ecosystems of the planet. That’s about craving for peace and harmony and a relaxed pace and havens in which people can recover and be happy and thrive. What a different world it would be if those CEOs and their hard working executives could just slow down and not drive and crash through and work so much and just appreciate what they have and get satisfaction from their hobbies. If they could just be, instead of having to do. Their very restlessness belies insecurity and fear I think, fear of the vacuum of purpose they’d fall into if they didn’t have another hostile takeover to work on. You guys work at least three times too hard.”

By this time Mike had regrouped. “But nothing would ever get done if we didn’t have what you’re condemning? Civilization would never have been built. Would there have been any progress?”

Gran waded in. “Michael, is your world progressing? Is it civilized? At least 160 million killed in wars in the Twentieth century, with every prospect of an even better tally in this one. Michael do you know that every measure is now showing that the quality of life in your so-called civilization is now falling from year to year, even though all that striving you are so keen on is raising the GDP a good 3% every year…”

Jan took it up, “…while you are destroying the ecosystems that everyone depends on, precisely because of the mania to produce more, consume more, work hard, innovate, master, grow.”

Pete said with a grin, “Hey team, we’ve got him on the ropes, let’s put the boot in now! Next point Mike, you make the so-dominant conventional assumption that humans are and have to be and should be intensely competitive, aggressive, determined-to-prevail individuals. In your society that’s perfectly true. You have no choice but to go out there and work and fight for your own advantage, knowing that you can go down, and many do.”

“Like the, is it 50% of small businesses that start and go bust, because there isn’t room for them all,” said Gran.

“And the fact that there are often about 20 unemployed for every job vacancy,” Jan added.

“You know that you had better make it as an individual because no one is going to care for you if you fail. In fact if you do fail they’ll turn on you and attack you as a drag on society, adding to the welfare bill, living off their hard earned taxes, and a moral failure, pathetic at best and despicable at worst. So, you have no choice but to grind and struggle and work and compete as an individual in aggressive competition with all others, to be among those who come out as the winners. People in your society could not care less about those who can’t get a job. Eliminating unemployment is not a political issue. Any party that said ‘We’re going to get rid of unemployment, but we’ll have to raise taxes a bit to do it’, would be committing electoral suicide. Disabled people, mentally ill people, old people, anyone who can’t compete and provide for themselves are dumped into poverty or dependence on ever-diminishing and grudging welfare cheques. It’s a society in which anyone can win…but everyone can’t. In a competitive society a few win and take most of the wealth, but most fail and are dumped and deprived. Great way to organise a society eh? Has all your work and grit built a civilisation you are proud of.”

“But competition is what drives a society. It’s what gets people to strive and achieve and innovate. It produces efficiency. Sure there’s a downside. Yes the winners get a lot more than the rest but that’s what motivates all to work hard, to be one of the winners. And anyway you can’t become rich unless you’re selling something valuable to others. Ok, some can’t keep up with the winners, but there’s welfare for them.”

“Mike there’s no competition in the Glen. This town works well precisely because we work together to find the best way for all. Our tomato growers and bread bakers produce perfect food without any competition. Why? Because they love doing it.”

“Well they would be more efficient if they competed. The best bread bake would drive the others out of business, and you’d get cheaper bread.”

“While Kerry and Marvin and their families become unemployed. Do you think that’s less important than cheaper bread?”

Gran quickly took the stage again. “Notice how this individualistic, aggressive, competitive theme permeates your folklore. Your myths, stories, sport even, are essentially about some individual hero confronting adversity or evil, competing, violently usually, and triumphing with his foot on the adversary’s face in the mud, admired by all onlookers vicariously enjoying the deliciously deserved beating. Make my day.”

…

Pete continued. “If on the other hand your world view was cooperative and collective none of that would be true. Billions of people today and over the last several hundred years would have had a totally different life experience if we could have replaced that terrible individualistic, competitive, aggressive, greedy, winner-take-all syndrome with one that’s primarily about cooperative concern for the welfare of all. If there’s one thing the Glen’s about it is cooperating to make and maintain a beautiful caring spiritually rich society. You can’t have that unless you get together and deliberately make it.”

Gran said, “I’m thinking about during the Great depression, with around 30% of American workers unemployed for years. Why didn’t people just get together and form Community Development Collectives like ours, and start putting their idle labour and skills into producing for themselves most of the basic things they needed. Such a collective response never occurred to them!”

“Because they could only think as competitive individuals.”

Gran continued. “As I understand it most tribal people are intensely collectivist; they couldn’t have survived if they were not. And our society was still more or less like that a mere 500 years ago. It’s not that its natural for us to be individualistic and competitive. Somehow we went wrong a few hundred years ago.”

Jan said, “That’s very encouraging I think. It means we could do it, because we know we once did.”

“And still do, in tribes for example, or among the Amish and Hutterites.”

A pause again, Mike back to looking at the floor, Gran clicking away.

Mike said, “Ok, you’re saying that central to your way is a quite different syndrome of ideas and attitudes, but I’m a bit taken aback by how problematic you see mine as being.”

“Yes, that’s what we want to get across most of all, the significance of the cultural difference. What’s important about the Glen is not the alternative technologies and the new geography. It’s the culture and the very very different values and world view. One could easily fail to see this. The Glen works because people here hold such very unconventional ideas about society and human relations. Amy is right; you come from an alien world. The difference is immensely important, and so significant for human emancipation.”

“Emancipation?”

“Yes the task is to free people from the terrible oppression they inflict on themselves by that conventional ideology you expressed. There is absolutely no need or excuse for poverty, unemployment, homelessness. We haven’t got any of them in The Glenn have we? Why? Simply because our world view is not focused on how can I maximise my advantage but on how can we organise things so that everyone is cared for and has a high quality of life and can thrive…which of course is the best way to maximise your own welfare anyway. That’s very easy to do, if you want to do it. We do it very easily. No need for hardship, no deprivation, no grinding resented discipline. But you lot just refuse to even think about any of this.”

“And why do we do it? Is it that we are saints who force ourself against all desire to go to working bees? No it isn’t. It’s because doing what will make others happy and what will make this region thrive and what will generate conviviality and synergism is what we want to do, what we enjoy doing more than anything else.”

“And,” said Gran, “That dramatically reduces the need for all that work and striving and achievement and competition you spoke about. And it’s because we have a cooperative economy that makes sure all are provided for, that we eliminate the need for everyone to compete furiously for jobs and sales that are too scarce, wasting resources in the process.”

Jan had been unusually quiet. “Yes. I see it in terms of defusing, or perhaps redefining the situation, in a way that eliminates so many problems -- just prevents them from occurring. See, because we take the simpler way and we focus on what’s good for all there are so many problems that we then don‘t have to solve because we haven’t created them, such as traffic jams, resource depletion, environmental damage, poverty, mugging, depression, homelessness, mental illness, car accidents, people on drugs. And this means there’s far less need for prison systems and power stations, and managers and social workers…and all that work and discipline. Whereas the more problems consumer society creates the more you think you need more investment, more development, more technology and more work to solve them. You think that the more you produce the more wealth you have and therefore the more you can spend on solving the problems…which you are creating by doing all that producing in the first place.”

Pete allowed time to go by. Mike didn’t speak, elbows on knees, making it impossible for the others to get any clues on what he might be thinking.

Pete went on, “Sorry but there’s another huge assumption I think you revealed, that life is a struggle, that nature or reality sets us this endless difficult task of getting by, and to do it you have to toil, in a context of scarcity and risk and danger and difficulty. Nature is stingy and it takes a lot of effort to get from her what we need for a comfortable existence. We have to trick and force her into yielding and producing, and it takes great effort.”

Gran said, “The curse of Adam, thrown out of the Garden of Eden and condemned to struggle for existence ever since.”

“Well, we in The Glen see it completely differently. There need not be any antagonism. We think nature is abundantly bountiful and generous. If we just organise sensibly we could have everything we need for a delightful existence. Nature gives us the rain, for nothing. She gives us the soils and the forests and the sunsets. People living in The Glen get all the food they need easily, they have perfectly adequate, in fact beautiful houses, not through toil but through enjoyable creative activity. There are few risks, certainly none of unemployment or starvation or poverty or loneliness. No one fears falling behind or getting trampled. And all at a relaxed pace. How is this possible? Simply because we consciously, deliberately set out to organise it, and we have the sense to realise that you can’t do it unless you cooperate. On the other hand your economy pits you against each other and thereby creates the struggle, makes you work too hard, puts you in a situation where many must fail, and puts you in a situation of risk. lf you organise things competitively then, surprise surprise, a few will win and take everything and most will be deprived.”

At last Mike responded, “Look, the Western turn to competitive individualism two or three hundred years ago liberated us from the feudal situation of stultifying acceptance of rule by kings and despots. Don’t you see a dilemma here, with the tyranny of the collective as an even greater danger than the devil take the hindmost inequality that individualism and freedom can lead to.”

“Yes, certainly, but it’s a matter of finding the right balance. Surely there can be abundant freedoms for individuals, and scope for deviance and non-conformity, within a frame that is basically about cooperating and concern for the common good. I’d say that’s what we have here. People have extremely different religious and aesthetic values, but there is a core of collective values. It’s a minimally sufficient factor w’re after…enough glue. I can’t think of any constraints on my freedom that I resent.”

“I’d say it’s precisely because we are sensibly collectivist that people here enjoy most of their freedoms,” said Gran.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, its because we get together to provide for each other that people are free from things like poverty and homelessness and loneliness…”

“And free to learn violin or to garden about four days a week!” said Jan.

Mike didn’t respond and for some time no one spoke. Jan took the opportunity and said, “Oh dear it really is getting late. Poor old Mike must be very tired, and he has a big day tomorrow. We have lots of adventures planned.”

Pete said, “Gawd, Mike, sorry for the all the lectures. We have piled such a lot of ideological stuff on you. ..but that’s what you are here for of course”

“That’s OK. It is all very interesting, but it is a bit hard to come to terms with it all quickly.”

Pete went upstairs with Mike to his room and checked that he knew where things were. “Like a nightcap, a drink of something?”

“Oh, a glass of milk would be nice. By the way where’s Amy?”

“No idea,” said Mike, as if not needing to explain and as if it was of no consequence anyway. “I’ll send the maid up with the milk.”

Mike unpacked a few things, his mind racing from one theme to another. The big folder of work he’d brought from the office was still sitting there.

A few minutes later there was knock at the door. Jan came in with a tray carrying a glass of milk and some biscuits.

“Oh thanks.”

“Got everything you need?”

“Yes, except a clear head. Look can you tell Pete I’m not offended at the lectures. Don’t say I asked you to say that, but just let him know I understand there’s a lot that he, you all, want to get across, and a lot to be explained and argued.”

“Alright. Pete can be a bit long winded. He’s aware of that. We really do find it difficult to get people to understand the different mentality here, so Pete’s trying to get that across -- and you can’t imagine how I hate it when he does that burp.”

“…you mean…”

“Night Mike.”