Intentional Community -
Alternative, Microcosm or Oxymoron?
by Tim McDevitt

I must begin with a disclaimer. I have lived in only one intentional community, the one at Breitenbush Hot Springs. I have no way of knowing, for sure, how representative it is of intentional commu-nities in general. In fact, I don’t know if generalities can validly be drawn at all.

Yet there are people who have lived in quite a number of intentional commu-nities. There is a directory of Intentional Communities in the United States, there is an international directory for that matter, and apparently there are people who make the rounds, as it were, going from one community to another for reasons of their own. A number of these folks have come through Breitenbush, to stay for a couple of months or a couple of years, and in conversations with them there has been an amazingly high level of consistency regarding issues that arise in intentional communities. When I would cite some habitual challenges of life at Breitenbush, I heard repeatedly that it is the same in intentional communties everywhere.

Moreover, we at Breitenbush have brought in quite a number of professional group facilitators, consensus builders, communication and conflict resolution instructors and consultants, many with extensive intentional community experience themselves. Time and time again I have heard, “Ah, yes. We had the same problem in our community,” or “I encounter this in virtually every commu-nity.” I therefore take it at face value that Breitenbush is in many significant ways on a par with other intentional communities, and that regardless of the many differences in communities, there are certain challenges inherent in any group of human beings settling down in one spot in an attempt, intentional or otherwise, to live together.

I must add that the views expressed herein are entirely my own. I do not propose to represent the Breitenbush Community, or any group or individual other than myself. Nor am I an average or representative Breitenbush Community member. Such a creature, I am certain, does not exist.

Last but not least, the issues discussed and examples given span nearly ten years of life at Breitenbush and don’t necessarily reflect on the present community.

I dislike so much disclaiming—covering my tail—but it illustrates an important point: a community is a whole, and the whole is extremely particular regarding how an individual’s behavior reflects on the whole. One of the first things that became painfully clear to me shortly after my arrival at Breitenbush was that I could not “be myself.” I was raised in a large, boisterous, nay, tumul-tuous, Irish-American family. I tend to be direct to the point of bluntness and suffer no fools gladly. This economy of expression turned out to be a quality that was not appreciated. It was considered barbarous and unevolved. Once I learned to check my impulses and had conformed (to the extent I have been able) to what I consider to be a frequently euphemistic and artificial mode of expression, I was complimented on my “personal growth.” But I’m getting ahead of myself.

As I said, there is a directory of intentional communities. The listings are in the hundreds. I believe this qualifies as an intentional community movement. My assumption is that the impetus for the movement was to make things better. Which means that things weren’t so hot the way they were. And so, the search for alternatives ensues, which begs the question: alternatives to what? Is there such a thing as a traditional community? If so, why is the alternative to same dubbed intentional? Is no intent at work in those more conventional communities?

Looking back on the neighborhood community of my childhood, it seems to me that things indeed worked by convention. There was a plethora of children. We all played together. Our parents knew each other on a first name basis and attended social events at each others’ homes. Lawnmowers, ladders, mechanical ability and sundry other resources were shared. And if I got into a fight with one of my young neighbors (a routine occurrence) my father would march me over to the neighbor’s house for a heart-to-heart talk, what at Breitenbush we would call a “clearing.” But I don’t think anyone thought that anything exceptional was transpiring. People acted out of mysterious phenomena called “common courtesy” and “common sense,” which seemed to be loosely based on the golden rule of treating others in a fashion that you would like to be treated.