FREE SOIL
A Monastic Community of Southern Illinois

NOTE: This document is an incomplete rough draft written by a single member of the proposed community. It is presented here only as a starting point for further discussion, not as a definitive organizational document.

Vision Statement

Free Soil is monastic community whose goal is to co-create an ecological society of free cooperation. As a first step toward achieving this goal, we choose to share our lives with people who share our vision. Our experiences within the sanctuary of our community serve both as living experiments in the manifestation of our vision and as mutual aid in our efforts to transform our region, our society, and our planet for the better.

Monastic Community

‘Monastic’ means ‘living alone.’ We are monastic because we choose to gather in a community that is set apart from the rest of society. In this sanctuary, we are free to develop the principles and practices that we cherish, independent of society’s expectations and limitations. The quality of our personal and social experience is in our hands, and we are empowered to create and recreate that experience in alignment with our greatest hopes and dreams.

However, we do not believe in isolationism or retreat from our social context. In fact, we are committed to active participation in the public affairs of our region, our society, and our planet. Our sanctuary is a place where we take one step back from the distractions of a troubled society in order to rediscover our purpose and take three steps forward in the service of the common good.

Ecological Society

As living organisms, our identity and our well-being are inextricably interwoven with the identity and well-being of a living ecosystem. Therefore, an ecological perspective must be at the heart of any effort to create a good life for ourselves, our communities, and our society.

When an individual harms others without remorse or empathy, they are called a sociopath. What, then, do we call a society whose entire wealth and power is created through acts of massive ecocide? If someone has no remorse or empathy for the acts of ecocide that are being committed in their name, then they are an ecopath, the ecological equivalent of sociopaths.

In this community, we are committed to breaking the cycle of ecopathy. As individuals and as a community, we accept responsibility for our ecological footprint and our roles, both beneficial and harmful, in our living ecosystem. Therefore, we study, practice, and promote philosophies such as permaculture and bioregionalism that are founded in an ecological understanding and designed to create human systems that flourish in harmony with ecological systems.

Free Cooperation

Many people believe that individual freedom and social cooperation are two opposing forces. They argue that individual freedom must be limited to create a secure society, or that social security must be sacrificed in order to preserve the individual’s freedom.

We believe that individual freedom and social cooperation can be – and must be – mutually supportive forces. We choose freely to cooperate with one another in the service of both personal empowerment and social security.

We also believe that equality and equal opportunity are foundations upon which free cooperation is built. Therefore, it is a central part of our life's work to oppose hierarchies of power based on arbitrary personal, social, and biological traits. These hierarchies include, but are not limited to:

We refuse to tolerate these hierarchies in our lives, our community, our region, and our world.. We challenge these hierarchies by opposing them where we see them and by affirming our own positive values of diversity, equality, and acceptance of all.

Strategy Statement

In order to make our vision a reality, we choose to live and act strategically, both as individuals and as a community. Our strategy is centered on creating change within ourselves, then carrying this change out into the world.

Self-Empowerment

Our community offers us the opportunity to support each other in the development of self-empowerment. We call ourselves a monastic community because this support takes the form of a focused social environment where we all share a set of common practices and goals.

Similarities to other forms of monasticism include: life together in an intentional community; dedication to a common vision of how to live a good life; shared personal practices such as exercise/meditation; dedication to service for others and world service.

Differences include: a vow of shared abundance rather than shared poverty; a vow of sensual and sexual affirmation rather than asceticism and chastity; acceptance of many spiritual perspectives rather than just one.

Community Building

Human beings are inherently social creatures. In order to create a harmonious balance between our individual self-expression and our collective social interaction, we choose to cultivate intentional relationships of a co-operative and mutually supportive nature. We call this harmonious balance community, and we see building community as one of our chief goals. As an organization, we pursue this goal on two fronts: internally and externally.

Internal community building is conducted among the Participants, Members, and Monks who call our community home. This involves learning about directly democratic forms of decision-making, sharing meals, and developing means of social and economic cooperation such as food sharing, cooperative housing, potlucks, classes, recreation, entertainment, and other social activities.

External community building involves providing support, both logistical and theoretical, for community projects in our local community and region. This involves putting on workshops for the general public, supporting other community-oriented organizations, and encouraging local and regional efforts to create a ecological society of social cooperation.

Strategic Nonviolent Direct Action

As members of a monastic community, much of our daily practice unfolds in the relatively focused and safer space provided by our sanctuary. However, our entire purpose in gathering as a community is to learn and grow as individuals so that we may better serve the cause of positive change in our region, our society, and world. Therefore, both in principle and in practice, we support strategic nonviolent direct action in the service of our stated goal of creating an ecological society of free cooperation.

As we see it, strategic nonviolent direct action consists of two components: the constructive program and the resistance program.

The constructive program is the primary work of nonviolence and the primary work of our community. Its goal is to create the positive external structures, culture, and internal consciousness required for human beings to live together in an ecological society of free cooperation. This includes developing systems and methods by which people can cooperate freely to secure their own food, water, shelter, ecological resources, health care, security, transportation, education, recreation, and self-actualization.

The resistance program is a supportive task of nonviolence and our community. Its goal is to resist and mitigate the actions and existence of violent and oppressive external structures, culture, and internal consciousness. This includes organizing demonstrations and other programs with the strategic goal of interfering with the structures and crises of violence and oppression. It also includes taking action to protect aspects of the constructive program from attack by violent and oppressive forces.

As a community, our focus is on the constructive program. However, when confronted with the presence of violence and oppression, we stand committed to the task of organizing strategic nonviolent direct action to serve and protect the people and places of our community, our region, and our world.

Organization

Free Soil offers three levels of involvement for people who appreciate our principles, practices, and vision for a better life. These are the Participant, the Member, and the Monk.

Participants

Monastic life is not for everyone. Therefore, Free Soil offers many opportunities for people who share aspects of our vision but choose not to live in a monastic community. These include workshops, community service projects, and social events such as movie nights and seasonal celebrations.

Members

Members are among the most involved participants in Free Soil. They attend and help to organize workshops, community service projects, and social events for the community.

Members voluntarily contribute to the community through a membership fee, sweat equity, or a combination of the two. In return for this contribution, they receive free access to workshops taught by our Monks, an invitation to our weekly Members Dinner, and participation in decision-making about projects that they are involved in.

Monks

Monks are the primary organizers of Free Soil. They provide educational and inspirational services to Participants and Members, organize long-term projects, and develop long-term visioning and planning for the community. Since they have the greatest involvement, they also make all decisions about long-term issues such as the acceptance of new Monks, major economic projects, and modification of the Vision Statement.

Monks voluntarily contribute a significant amount of funding to the community. The particulars of this funding are decided amongst the Monks based on each individual's ability to provide and the needs of the community. The community uses this money to support the development and maintenance of community spaces such as cooperative housing, shared food systems, cooperative meeting space, and similar community projects.