[Xmca-l] Re: Life off grid - communitas?

[mike cole]

It turns out that Wednesday in LCHC we are discussing Latour's article on
waiting for Gaia. I attach it for those interested. It raises Huw's
concerns and multiplies them by a few terawatts.

Just in time for Halloween!

mike

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 4:27 PM, Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>
wrote:

> That looks like a compelling film, Greg.  Is 'off the grid' used
> metaphorically, i.e. is it about living away from societal norms, or is it
> principally about generating their own power etc?
>
> I have always thought it rather telling that the skills that society at
> large tends to value the most (finance, entertainment) are invariably the
> most useless when it comes to living within a small community.  Maybe,
> maybe, this is because community is not something easily achieved outside
> of settings of co-dependence that are not mediated by money, qualifications
> etc.
>
> Then again, one has to ask about the nature of a production documenting a
> more independent way of living whilst simultaneously reconnecting with
> societal values by lugging a wide-lens camera around with homesteaders at
> one end of the camera and a series of official film selection committees at
> the other end of apparatus.  Is there some kind of hipster quality to that,
> about being radically happy in the city centre or radically happy out in
> remote places, provided the umbilical chord isn't cut?  Or is it more
> simply communities celebrating their existence and survival -- "we're here
> and we do things differently".
>
> Either way, what seems to be interesting for me here is the change in
> meaning for basic skills and community values that seem to go hand in hand
> with 'disconnecting'.
>
> Best,
> Huw
>
> On 25 October 2015 at 02:30, Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Is this a new form of communitas:
> > http://lifeoffgrid.ca/
> > (link is to a 3 minute trailer for a movie about folks living life off
> the
> > grid)
> > Some of the folks seem to suggest so. Others maybe not so much.
> > -greg
> >
> > --
> > Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor
> > Department of Anthropology
> > 880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
> > Brigham Young University
> > Provo, UT 84602
> > http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> >
>



-- 

It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
object that creates history. Ernst Boesch
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