The question/notion/idea of, what if the internet did not exist and we all, we the six hundred, had to actually live together as a community. Do you think we could make it work, would people still stop by 'the club' and be social and interact with each other as we do on here with each other? Is that a pipe dream?
I say it isn't. I was a heroin addict for about twenty years starting at the age of fifteen. At sixteen I found myself in a live in drug program, completely cut off from the outside world, no phone, no radio, no newspapers no television for almost a year and a half and the internet didn't exist then. I didn't even know where I was, all I knew, I was in the country, not a sound of the city around, nothing but rolling hills and us, all the other drug addicts, mostly heroin addicts. There was no professional anything, drug addicts ran the place. You came in as a newbie and one day you found yourself in charge to a certain degree and then you graduated and left to a now productive life. As usual, I bucked the system and returned to being a junkie for the next eighteen years. It was the hardest place I've ever lived...as in you were responsible for you at all times and if you fucked up, you paid the price immediately. It was also the coolest experience I've had in my life even though I was a young teen. I learned how to live and work together with people from all different walks of life, all different colors and different ethnic back grounds. It was great, of course everyone didn't get along with everyone but there was enough room where friction didn't ever build to where physical stuff happened. If it got bad enough, you would get in a group with that person, scream and holler at each other and then find a way to at least be civil to one another. Wally you mention fasting. I did a thing there where I was in a group for about thirty hours, awake the whole time, and no food, only liquids but we had soup. I can see where you get the spiritual from, I felt like I was tripping by the time the 'marathon' ended.
As long as it's clear what is expected of people, I think we could darn well run our own community and have a place to hang out at night for all the members.
Thoughts?