Nothing new under the sun!...
The notion and action of creating self sustaining communities ( like the Amish mentioned earlier) is not new at all and I am willing to bet we see a lot more of this type of thinking happening in the least expected places.
The idea of bartering and supporting/ utilizing farmer's markets and off grid sources for income/ housing/ healthcare and socialization are bound to make a return and we are seeing it already.
The issue with trying to just get a group of folks together to live off the land, as it were, is the same set of issues we have even just with on line communities ( as we have witnessed with many recent threads of discussions). There do have to be rules, unfortunately, or shit hits the fan. Even WITH rules it does, but at least with rules, folks have all agreed upon an ideology initially to fall back on in tiresome times.
There have been successful models to build from for those sincerely seeking to do this. The Amish Community for one, is a very successful albeit very sparse form of community.
The Federation of Egaliatarian Communities is a good working model that I am familiar with.
http://thefec.org/
And Lord knows.. Lesbians have been seeking and sometimes with measures of success to create womens land for evah. An interesting article about that journey ( still ongoing) from The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...02fa_fact_levy
Good thread! thanks!