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Friday, 19 September 2008 17:16
How To 

 

In the beginning, small groups of people organizing themselves into a micro-model of the larger culture can use what property and resources they have, after all, any home may serve as the seat of a social leader and it can be adapted to any culture. We can cheaply make our own cultural objects and make do with homemade things. All it takes is a few people committed to the vision of cultural creativity who have the imagination to take what they have and use it to express that vision. 
  

At first, community gatherings will be very casual, just some people within their area agreeing to get together on weekends and participate in some of the cultural activities, as the popularity grows the activities may be expanded to other communities and may be held more frequently, eventually every day. People may participate to any degree they choose, some may only want to wear the appropriate clothing and perform a simple job or fill a social role for one day just to experience the culture. Other crafts and trades people and entertainers may appear on weekends performing their craft or art. Other people may be able to participate every day in sustaining a regular social role and participate in the cultural activities of their organized community and work to develop and refine it.
     We will get people from the surrounding area to agree to volunteer and come together in creating fun and enriching cultural activities. Particularly arts and crafts people or practitioners of traditional trades, people interested in historical reenaction, entertainers and musicians and anyone who enjoys attending historical reenactments, country villages and festivals. 
     A small group may get support from others who are willing to volunteer the use of their property for cultural performances. We can temporarily adapt that property for a cultural presentation. Among the best places for cultural presentations are historic sites, publicly open historic homes, plantations, palaces, castles, historic villages, outdoor museums, farms, ranches and sections of cities. These sites are always looking for volunteers, craftspeople and others who wish to help organize and participate in festivals and appropriate cultural presentations. When we organize enough people we should be able to get their permission to organize our own cultural presentations which would be adapted so as to be appropriate to the particular historic site and its heritage. They should welcome our presentations because it will help to bring more visitors to their site. Besides that, farms, stores and other businesses will benefit because we will in some cases volunteer to provide free labor to them if it also fits into our activities.
   One of the strengths of our culture is that it can be adapted to virtually any culture and is not restricted to isolated areas which are detached from the rest of the world nor are they anachronistic. Our cultures can be extended and mixed with other communities and the world in general and our activities can at the same time be used in the larger economy which can be a vehicle for our cultural development.  Think in terms of producing a movie. The participants have roles that they play, only ours would be personas the people choose and develop on their own in real life pursuits, the roles are social positions that participate in and direct cultural activities which unfold like the story of a movie. Of course we wouldn't have a script, but the cultural leaders would direct the plot of the activities in pursuit of a particular goal. Complex roles would interact in cooperation and competition to achieve the goals of the life stories or to thwart rivals. One might also think of this organized culture has being somewhat like the reality shows on TV which are currently very popular. They're real to a certain degree in that they don't have scripts, but the organizers of the shows create a controlled environment in which they develop concepts in which players participate in cooperation and competition. The shows don't make up the roles of the players as in a movie, the players are real people who bring their real personality, attitudes and values to the show, but in some ways the players also change their behaviors in ways that result in them doing and saying things and relating to other people in a manner that they wouldn't in normal society. The reason for this is because the show's producers have created a different social arrangement where they direct behavior toward particular goals and have them participating in conceptual pursuits that illicit certain behavior, some of it positive, some of it negative, depending on your perspective. We can capitalize on the popularity of reality shows by filming our activities and broadcasting them over the Internet, this has the potential to make money from advertising, gain more participants, get tourists to pay to watch our activities and possibly sell our films on video.
   Those interested in these ideas can and should develop them in their lives, in their communities and use them to organize their friends and neighbors into meaningful cultural activities that strengthen families and communities. People can began choosing social leaders in their communities and in various social groups and clubs who exemplify the moral values they want to uphold. To begin developing the culture of one's choice, which would most likely be the national and regional culture where one lives or one's ethnic culture, all that is necessary is to choose to begin working at creating culture and spreading these ideas to others. How many people today even make an attempt at cultural excellence? Just a little effort from a few people in a community can transform the way people live and relate to each other and provide opportunities for a more a meaningful way of life. 
     Once we get enough people who are willing to work full time in our cultural activities, we may get permission small towns to set up permanent cultural presentations and we will also build our own villages. Many historic villages are composites of old buildings acquired free and saved from destruction by being moved to the village site and restored.
   Volunteers would include craftspeople who would work in the village each day and also people who will organize other activities around the area, including making and growing all of the things needed for maintaining the home and village, seasonal festivals and celebrations, sports, arts and entertainment, etc.   Guests may immediately join in the challenge and excitement of participating in the process of creating, developing and moving a community and its culture forward in the direction of their own choosing.
   We would present our presentations free of charge for the owners of the site, our compensation would come from products and services that we sell from our own cultural activities. We may negotiate with the owners to contribute a portion of all sales to the owners of the property or if we bring in additional paying guests, they may pay us. We may also get revenue from sponsors. However, the main goal is to use our own property or get people to volunteer to put their property within our organization. Persons who volunteer their property will be a part of the business and will be able to profit from it.
   Once we establish our own regular village open on weekends, we could eventually keep it open every day of the week and hire people to work there and charge tourists to experience it. People who wish to participate in the culture can put on the costumes and take on a role and would get free or reduced admission to the village, depending on their degree of participation and the value of what they contribute. What will begin as individual properties will, by recruiting new people and their businesses and other properties to join, become villages, towns, cities and extended communities. Our culture is meant to be open and extensive, not limited to an isolated village, the idea of developing villages is to have complete purposeful communities that we control while extending own culture into the world at large.

 

Mission
To build an organization of people committed to developing and refining meaningful cultural activities.
To develop cohesive communities that celebrate cultural diversity and coordinate different cultures into meaningful interaction.
To organize the support institutions needed to accomplish the goals listed herein.
To help people to be creative in developing and sharing their cultures and to provide the leadership and direction to give a meaningful purpose to the pursuit of cultural excellence.

 

Collaboration with groups:
Historical Societies
Historical Reenactment groups
Historic Places
Guest farms, Dude ranches, Orchards, Inns, Hotels
Festival/Event organizers
Performing Arts orgs
Communities service orgs
Environmental, Outdoors & Recreational clubs
Fraternities & Sororities, college special interest clubs (dance, Medievalists, etc.)
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 July 2009 16:06 )
 
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