Every month we get responses on Copiosis.com that get us thinking. This month I received a short question. The writer asked: “Is there a place to live with like-minded people (besides Burning Man for a week!)”? I presume the writer, by “like-minded”, meant people interested in living together in a sharing community such as Copiosis.
The short answer is “No”, but I didn’t leave it at that because that short answer needs some fleshing out. There are good reasons why our implementation objective does not include creating small communities where the like-minded can live in relief from capitalism while the rest of humanity continues to have to deal with it.
Our main implementation objective is to create “like-minded” people from among ordinary people. We do that by inviting these people to participate in the context of their ordinary lives, in their communities, in our demonstration projects. By participating in a demonstration project right where they are, participants experience a psycho-social-emotional mindset shift that is critical to making Copiosis a worldwide reality.
In short, the demonstration project experience creates people who have a visceral, experience of what’s possible in a Copiosis economy. This creation process changes the world-view of the participants and makes them open to a new reality. How does that happen?
Participants living their capitalist-based lives experience simultaneously a reality where their fellow participants are doing more, sharing more, and being more supportive of one another than they are in capitalism. When participants contrast what they had experienced in their daily lives to their participation in the demonstration project, something unique happens. Participants get a sense that what Copiosis offers just might be better than what capitalism offers, because Copiosis reconnects people with other people in a sharing, caring, nonintrusive community web.
It’s pretty profound to receive a meal from a member of your community whose name you don’t even know. It’s pretty profound to know your neighbor is churning ice cream to offer other community members at no cost to them, just because they want to share that thing (and receive net-benefit reward). Here are some quotes from participants in our projects:
I’m finding that even though I’m not participating with the software as I had hoped and hope to, it is changing me psychologically. I’m much more aware of what I am doing with my money and how I am relating to people around that. And of the gifts being offered to me all the time.
I notice that I am claiming more of who I am because I am evaluating my activities based on the Copiosis Innovation. For instance I had lunch with a friend and spent an hour talking about her kids and listening. She told me that she benefited from our conversation which got me thinking about how natural this comes to me. So I created it as an item in the demo project. We experience life through who we know ourselves to be and the project helps clarify and update my identity. I like what I have to give and it makes me want to give more.
I’m so inspyred about theze sweet tranzaxionz!!! My heart iz bursting with joy. A profound realization for me… a whole list of thingz I kan “afford” smile emoticon I feel lyke a freakin kid in a kandy store. This konnexion, this abundanse. This projekt haz been profoundly helpful to meeting my needz for purpose, kontribution, belonging, kommunity, growth, harmony, awareness, appreshiation. My strengths az an individual seem to really shyne in kopiosis in a way that the old paradigm/sosiety haz never provyded the spase for. Witnessing intelligent feedbak about the nature of the net benefit my passionz kreate provydez me with an aknowledgement and rekognition the lykes of which i have never known. To which i respond with a DEEP inner relaxing/softening that iz so very soothing indeed.
Through the demonstration projects this mindset transformation happens in real time in their real lives, without having to uproot people, put them in a temporary experience such as Burning Man (a great opportunity BTW) or an intentional community, which by definition is limited: Only so many people can live in an “intentional community.”
Our implementation intention is to change the entire world.
If you are really interested in living with like-minded people, how about launching a demonstration project where you are, instead of trying to go somewhere else? It’s not difficult and you don’t have to do it alone. We’re happy helping you along the way.
Our results so far show our approach is working. Participants are realizing profound and lasting psycho-social-emotional shifts in their world views and behaviors, even though our projects are in the earliest stages. When they engage with the innovation in their real life, with their real neighbors, the effect is deep. How much more effective will we be when we have 1000 demonstration projects in the US and more world wide, with tens of thousands of people participating? It won’t be hard to find like-minded people then.