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Intentioneering
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Rational Altruism resulting in a Plenty Paradigm
Egalitarian Commonwealth
Culture Magic
Home
Time-Based Economy
Gifting and Sharing
Living the Plenty Paradigm in Cohousing and Communal Society
Material Spirituality
Rational altruism affirms the positive perspective that all of our needs may be met, and that happiness is best provided, when we share. Since it is harder to share when we value everything in units of currency and hoard as much as we can, an economy based upon the ideal of rational altruism has to be based upon an alternative to monetary economics. A non-monetary economy, therefore, can not be an exchange economy, but must be a sharing economy, and work or labor, if not motivated by money, must be motivated by the nurturing-relationship value that it brings to the individual and community as a whole.

The focus in the dominant culture upon the monetary economy, represented by the concept of the "scarcity paradigm" in which economic demand is created by the emphasis upon possessiveness and property rights, preventing sharing and resulting in the exchange economy, is often explained via the theory of "rational self-interest." In contrast, the parallel culture of the "plenty paradigm" focusing upon the sharing economy of common property ownership is explained via the theory of "rational altruism." The scarcity paradigm asserts the negative perspective that the pursuit of happiness requires a struggle for private wealth and power, while the plenty paradigm asserts the positive perspective that happiness is best provided when we affirm that there is plenty for all when we share.

The links on this page are to documents discussing the theory and value of intentional community as forms of applied rational altruism, and to documents presenting various histories of community movements and community networking organizations around the world.

Gifting and Sharing
tri-fold brochure
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Gifting and Sharing
18" x 24" poster
There has always been a
Counterculture
Timeline Communitarian Movements and Literature
The Ideal of an Inclusive Association of Intentional Communities
Histories Related to the Fellowship 1940s-1990s
Intentional Community Theory
International Intentional Community Networking
1978 -1988
International and Historical Overview of Intentional Community