The Intentional Family
Jacques-Alain Miller, a French academic, said, "For it is a simple matter to love one's neighbor when he is distant, but it is a different matter in proximity." This is an iconic dilemma of the modern man; that we value proximity without closeness. Between our virtual social networks, news bubbles, internet shopping routines and private modes of transportation most of us living in the modern world have gone to great lengths to re-route our social wiring, making our mindset less collective and more self-focused. Despite trends leaning toward social seclusion, t here are still people out there who seek out their neighbors with the intention of arranging a lifestyle that will be greatly influenced by them. These groups of people are sometimes as close or even closer than one's blood family and are called intentional communities. To many, the term “intentional community” evokes an image of cults that incorporate pedophilia into their religious practices, small groups ...