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You recall that Machiventa spoke last time about sustaining communities. This is a subset of a larger community development, which is intentional communities, and we spoke about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community intentional communities] through Mor-gan and Daniel years ago. Intentional communities are communities of individuals and families that have come together, who join in a community for intentional reasons. A self-sustaining [[community]] is only one of many types of intentional communities. But the broadest intentional community is a community that sustains life at all levels for the [[individual]] and [[family]]. Materiality is a minor element of that. You’ll find that economic and financial and material prosperity issue from happy individuals, productive families, and cooperative communities. Doing so, you’ll find there is less competition, no [[war]]fare, no expressions of hostility, with social processes that provide for [[adjustment]] of differences, peacefully.

You recall that Machiventa spoke last time about sustaining communities. This is a subset of a larger community development, which is intentional communities, and we spoke about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community intentional communities] through Mor-gan and Daniel years ago. Intentional communities are communities of individuals and families that have come together, who join in a community for intentional reasons. A self-sustaining [[community]] is only one of many types of intentional communities. But the broadest intentional community is a community that sustains life at all levels for the [[individual]] and [[family]]. Materiality is a minor element of that. You’ll find that economic and financial and material prosperity issue from happy individuals, productive families, and cooperative communities. Doing so, you’ll find there is less competition, no [[war]]fare, no expressions of hostility, with social processes that provide for [[adjustment]] of differences, peacefully.

Let us take this subset, self-sustaining community, a bit further. You probably have an [[idea]] what we mean by this. We mean far more than just material sustenance: Houses to live in, infrastructures for [[communications]], water, disposal of waste, garbage pick-up, food, jobs, education. These are only the meagerest degrees or parts of a self-sustaining community. Surely, you can have these things already. There are already many self-sustaining communities in development now in the [[United State]]s and elsewhere throughout the world. Many have come and gone, haven’t they? Why is that? Let us look at the [[errors]], the problems of those communities that have disintegrated. Was it due to lack of food? Was it due to lack of housing? Was it due to lack of employment, education, or religion? No, none of those. Why did they disintegrate? As I was [[listening]] in on Daniel and Agatha speaking earlier today, they discerned that one of the primary reasons for the disintegration of communities in the past has been due to failure of [[leadership]]. Those societies where there is good leadership have continued.

Let us take this subset, self-sustaining community, a bit further. You probably have an [[idea]] what we mean by this. We mean far more than just material sustenance: Houses to live in, infrastructures for [[communications]], water, disposal of waste, garbage pick-up, food, jobs, education. These are only the meagerest degrees or parts of a self-sustaining community. Surely, you can have these things already. There are already many self-sustaining communities in development now in the [[United States]] and elsewhere throughout the world. Many have come and gone, haven’t they? Why is that? Let us look at the [[errors]], the problems of those communities that have disintegrated. Was it due to lack of food? Was it due to lack of housing? Was it due to lack of employment, education, or religion? No, none of those. Why did they disintegrate? As I was [[listening]] in on Daniel and Agatha speaking earlier today, they discerned that one of the primary reasons for the disintegration of communities in the past has been due to failure of [[leadership]]. Those societies where there is good leadership have continued.

What is good [[leadership]]? Well, there are many answers and you will find them in the [[Urantia Book]]. There is primarily required a selfless dedication to the larger concerns for the [[group]], past the individual [[ego]] needs of the leader. A secondary cause of community disintegration due to inadequate leadership exists when there is no oversight for the watch care of leadership. This means that there is no self-monitoring [[process]] within a successful community for the continued monitoring of leadership, or a process for receiving grievances or complaints from populous community members about leadership that deteriorates. You may have a leader who established a community who did well, had good intentions; and has happened so often, something occurs in the mind of that leader that deflects them from their original selfless dedication. Surely they must have become bored, for they seem to have set themselves upon an agenda of self-destruction, either through [[power]], aggrandizement, [[sexual]] difficulties that violate boundaries of families and relationships, [[material]] gathering at the expense of others, differences in prerogatives between the leader and members so that there becomes a [[caste]] [[system]] between the leader, his family (or her family), and the rest of the population. We could go on, but if you examine the [[belief]] systems of those individuals, who once were good leaders, you’ll find they have become corrupted, lazy, and have lost their selfless dedication and commitment. Now this is not a chastisement I am giving you; this is simply an [[analysis]] of past failures. So, knowing that a successful community is not dependent totally upon food, housing, employment, location, geography or so on, realize that the sustaining community is sustained by something that is unmeasurable and immaterial. Not immaterial in that it does not affect anything, because it surely does affect all aspects of each individual, the family and the community as a whole, but it is not a [[material]] aspect that is measurable, quantifiable, or empirically knowable. We are talking about higher [[values]] that must be operant always.

What is good [[leadership]]? Well, there are many answers and you will find them in the [[Urantia Book]]. There is primarily required a selfless dedication to the larger concerns for the [[group]], past the individual [[ego]] needs of the leader. A secondary cause of community disintegration due to inadequate leadership exists when there is no oversight for the watch care of leadership. This means that there is no self-monitoring [[process]] within a successful community for the continued monitoring of leadership, or a process for receiving grievances or complaints from populous community members about leadership that deteriorates. You may have a leader who established a community who did well, had good intentions; and has happened so often, something occurs in the mind of that leader that deflects them from their original selfless dedication. Surely they must have become bored, for they seem to have set themselves upon an agenda of self-destruction, either through [[power]], aggrandizement, [[sexual]] difficulties that violate boundaries of families and relationships, [[material]] gathering at the expense of others, differences in prerogatives between the leader and members so that there becomes a [[caste]] [[system]] between the leader, his family (or her family), and the rest of the population. We could go on, but if you examine the [[belief]] systems of those individuals, who once were good leaders, you’ll find they have become corrupted, lazy, and have lost their selfless dedication and commitment. Now this is not a chastisement I am giving you; this is simply an [[analysis]] of past failures. So, knowing that a successful community is not dependent totally upon food, housing, employment, location, geography or so on, realize that the sustaining community is sustained by something that is unmeasurable and immaterial. Not immaterial in that it does not affect anything, because it surely does affect all aspects of each individual, the family and the community as a whole, but it is not a [[material]] aspect that is measurable, quantifiable, or empirically knowable. We are talking about higher [[values]] that must be operant always.