Would you relocate/do anything to join an Aspie kibbutz?

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I would.

I'd like to someday live in a communitarian intentional community but not necessarily the kibbutz model. Eco-villages are cool as are other forms of co-housing. Not sure if I'd want it to be all people in the autistic spectrum though. It's nice to mix things up.

Believe me, people on the spectrum are very, very varied. One is obsessed with this, one obsessed with that. Some are overstimulated and some understimulated, some manic, some depressive. Some are from England and some are from Argentina. Some are nonverbal and some never shut up. Some are neversatisfied enough and want more work, others are lazy.

<-does not play well with others.

Nah. I generally don't like people, aspie or not, so the thought of living with lots of people in a communal environment is not appealing to me.

Yes. I would. But then again, would something like this ever happen? Probably not, its something that many of us would need which is unfortunate. Who would we turn to for something like this? How could it happen?

Jennyfoo: but we'd understand you and leave you alone when you wanted it!



Username88: WE do it. We get together all the people who say yes in this thread, and then we start planning.

I think for something like that to happen, it would have to be created by a group of individuals invested in pursuing the idea. For ideas, see:

http://ic.org/

Some intentional communities are primarily co-housing, with maybe some shared events and most or all people going to school or working outside, while others are self-sufficient. I spent three months living and working at an intentional community located at a retreat center. It was a very positive experience. On top of that from 16-19 I was living at therapeutic school, only home for weekends. There was a real sense of family that developed there. Even the staff were more like big brothers and sisters than authority figures most of the time.

Ok but if we are going to contact people on the site I think we should get someone really professional sounding to do it so they will consider us...

A commune? No, I'll pass, thanks.

I like freedom.

Because of how harsh society is, I feel more imprisoned being a victim to their lack of understanding and consideration. Id feel much more better about life living in a place like this.

I've mostly abandoned society. I neither want nor need their understanding or consideration.

If they don't care about me enough to learn how to talk to me, then I don't see why I should care about them.

Your right about that part definetly I think. But personally I would be much more comfortable and happy in life if I was in an environment like this where everyone understood me and I could just be myself without the fear of being rejected or hated!

username,

the site is just a resource for intentional communities. It has information and guides, ways to get in touch with other people interesting in living in community and to network. It's not really a place, afaik, that would help a group setup. I'm not saying I'm necessarily interested, either, just making the information available for those who might be.

sylvius,

not all intentional communities are communes, and I'm not sure I see the connection between loss of freedom and communitarian living.

I can get slightly irrational when I get all hyped about something, its just me I guess. But I really do wish it were possible.. Well I guess it is possible but Im not really sure if it will actually happen..

username,

I can be the same way. So when I get really excited about a new idea I use that as a cue that I need to assess the situation more fully and take some days to let the initial passion fade. This is one of those cases. Some of the problems for me are:

1. My girlfriend isn't AS. When she visited me at the retreat center for a week she felt like an outsider because there were so many Jewish folks. I can't imagine how she would feel surrounded by people with AS. Then again she does have social anxiety. But she's also told me once she's not sure she'd ever be interested in any type of co-housing.

2. I need to get back to college, and finish college. It's true I could consider Goddard, but that place is really expensive and I'm not sure I have the discipline for it.

3. If it formed somewhere far away from any Jewish community I'm not sure how comfortable I'd want to take part as, even though I tend to avoid a lot of things in the community, it's an important community to me that I'd like the option to be able to connect with when I'm so inclined.

4. It take a looot of work and if there isn't an interest it's all wasted effort. I just ended a project on SL that I put a lot of time into because there wasn't enough interest in it.

5. Some problems of the outside world are only amplified living in community. If you have a problem with someone, it's harder to avoid them. If the decision-making is democratic (which imo it should be) then that can be a source of additional friction. If there are some shared spaces that everyone takes turns cleaning up it can be difficult if some members aren't pulling their own weight. It's not like the problems of the world go away, except maybe the lack of social contact, people who don't understand what you're going through.

A better solution to something so complicated might be finding a roommate or a few roommates with AS. In some cases that's all an intentional community is, anyway.

Eeeh