Presenting Ourselves

Participants

Scary nuts are worse than harmless nuts
Can we not be perceived as nuts?
We live in a policitical climate in which you are expected to perceive half the world as nuts
It seems important to understand that fear of being outcast
Do they think we're nuts? We coulds ask and they lie ... we'll never know with 100%
What we're really worried are about the actions they might take
- Deep space nine ... only judge people by what they do
Whose opinions about us matter?
- What do the people we will have want to have attracted think about us.
- There are people we want to attract to join us
- And then there are people we want as neighbors
Parable of the Talents ... Shedding Acorn was needed

Landmark Education
- Exercises within the course include how to deal with fears like fear of being an outcast
Rajnishis in Oregon
- Some of them were scary
- But had good places in Portland to get vegetarian food
- Their problem was trying to politically control their surroundings, and trying to swing an election through illegal means
Saint-Simonians, technology- and future-focused religion and intentional community
- Started trying to dig the Suez Canal
  - But it took someone with a different kind of big-picture view to finish it
- Problems included belief in sexual promiscuity

People look scary when they seem to put their values above basic civilized values
People worry when their kids might get involved in a group that prevents them from being successful and/or ruins their lives
Also, religions (and rockets) are a source of power, and people fear the potential for power to "run amuck"
- Keith: Catholic priests' celibacy helps avoid fear of sexual power

Religion should be an outgrowth of mysticism (which is a mythical embellishment of deep truth), not just invented
- Keith: Even in the former case, it usually goes downhill from the mystic roots
  - Always ends up with a few leaders and many followers (who want to be followers)
  - Possible exceptions: Unitarians, Quakers
Religions are usually intolerant of each other
Brandon originally didn't want SolSeed to be a religion
- During college he became a militant atheist and was in conflict with his parents, even though they share core values
- Unfortunately, the superficial ends up trumping that common core
  - Keith: especially in politics, where all Rep vs. Dem activism is anti-American in the sense of destroying the idea of common purpose
In not being a religion you give up access to the mystical tradition, the experience of being one with others
- This may be frightening, but in order to accomplish any collective project you must give up some of your individuality
- The ideal organization would work because it has the right people who each have the skills and desire to fill a specific role, but this rarely happens