common ground
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come lonely crowded people. I try to get people together.” A lot of people are squatting in Western cities from outright rejection of the system that leads to the type of “lonely crowds” that Gaenfah decries.
This time Gavin echoes the Buddhist: “People live together but lead completely different lives in this society.” It only takes a short walk around Gavin’s squat to realize that the people here have created something much more enriching than the shopping mall below them. Here, 30 people have their own rooms off two long hallways; I make it halfway down the first before someone calls out, “Come and chat with us. We've just made a pot of tea.” I sit with two men in their late twenties who have left behind houses, cars, and a 40-hour work week. They tell me that they've made a way for people to live with the support of each other, to work for each other without the dehumanizing force of money.
Money distances people from the real costs of what they buy. The price of a good says nothing about the human, social, and environmental costs incurred by your demand. When you only see cost in terms of the amount of work you had to do to earn those dollar bills, what you buy becomes precious; it becomes something to defend. The need to earn money decreases our ability to share, and it actually becomes acceptable to take advantage of other people rather than work with them.
So it follows that neither the Asoke nor the squatters use money for exchange. The squatters can barter with each other, as their environment does not provide for their basic needs. Many communities, from Madison, Wisconsin to Kutchum, Thailand have begun to use their own currency as one more option to remind people that the value is in the exchange and not in the paper bills themselves.
But the real heart of the matter here is sacrifice, which the Asoke are champions at cultivating. They make everything they consume, from vegetables to books, and consume everything publicly. The Asoke have even developed their own system of economics called bunniyom, which centers around sacrifice, sharing, and being satisfied with what one already has—“enough”
am Nation A short film by Sara Schaumburg
economics. Every Asoke community in Thailand runs a non-profit store and a vegan restaurant to share the abundance of what they produce. For the squatters, sacrifice means giving up comfort and material accumulation for something greater. Without available land or the money to rent a home, squatters take abandoned property and turn it into something useful. They install the heating, fix the plumbing, repair falling beams, and make the place livable.
Just down the street from Gavin’s squat, another squat serves as a showcase for all these values at work. One building, the Grote Broek, contains a bookstore, library, art space, bar and music venue, and an organic vegan cafe—with the dozen people who run all of this living upstairs. Sure, these establishments run on money, but they rely even more on the dedication of the residents to the squat’s primary goal: creating a space for Nijmegen community discussion.
Control is still pervasive. Although the Asoke follow the Buddha’s teachings to the letter, they have been arrested countless times for calling themselves Buddhist. As indifference to the world is supposed to be at the cornerstone of true Buddhist practice, mainstream Thai society hasn’t reacted well to the Asoke practice of “meditating with your eyes open.” For example, the Asoke camped out at protest grounds to ensure that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was toppled in a peaceful manner. In reaction, mainstream practitioners have bombed Asoke communities, lit their stores on fire, and hit monks on the street.
Things aren’t much better in Nijmegen. Squatting may be legal, but that doesn’t mean rent-paying residents enjoy having their city teeming with squatters. The police and the courts regularly evict the squats either because other citizens consider them an “eyesore” or simply to reassert control over undesirable people in their community.
Like Gavin says, it really all comes down to control. What's really at stake is the ability to determine one's own way of life and the use of one’s own resources, while not infringing on the rights of others. This is a “radical” idea to which we can all relate.
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