4. An ideal organization operates in three areas:
1. An Economic Activity that supports the organization 2. Continuing Education for its members 3. Actvities that build up the broader community
Our recent history has been to expand the role and importance of recreation in our lives. Consumer culture presents an attractive, confusing, nearly infinite offering of stuff to buy and things to do. There are so many things we could do, so many things to buy, that status has shifted away from the quantity of consumer goods and activities that we can grab. Nearly anyone can buy more things than he or she has place to keep or time to play with them. Status now comes from having the right things as defined by shifting fashions. What is hip, clever, The New Thing. If we want to, we can continue to expand the place of entertainment, hobbies and vacations in our lives. This will be made possible for us. We could, instead, divide our time among 1. what we must do to sustain our physical lives, 2. continuing to learn and develop our potential, 3. buildint up Good Places around us – whether through paid or volunteer work. We could each pursue these areas as individuals. Probably the most benefit, though, would come from working together with others towards this ideal. Imagine an organization that focused on supporting activities in all of these three areas.
1. The Economic Activity
We need to work in order to sustain our physical existence. The survival of anyone who doesn’t work is being purchased by someone else’s labor. Imagine an organization that has its members spend some of their effort in an economic activity to sustain the members’ lives in the world and to support the other activities of the organization. The
168
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs