Post 2: Serenbe: a utopian community?

SERENBE

                  Serenbe is a neighborhood situated within the limits of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia in Usa. It is an example of a new kind of urbanism called New urbanism and it was developed by Steve Nygren and Marie Lupo Nygren in 2004, when the first house was built. Today, the community is home to 650 residents. This Eco-friendly project originates in the year 2000, Steve Nygren wanted to create a little urban village in the middle of a forest. For him it is "all about common sense ways to develop places for us to live in and how we can interrelacte with nature and with each other in a meaningful way". Steve, in this project, he believed that the only way to protect the beautiful country side on the edge of Atlanta it was by proving that development is possible without destroying the natural landscape. He says that he din't "invent any formula" he took inspiration from how we lived when we were healthier and happier in a simpler society. In this idea, we may make a connection between the myth of the noble savage in a modernized version. Serenbe in his project defends a step back from our current society to go back to a less urbanist way of life filled wit stress, consumerism and environmental destruction. For instance, Serenbe has plenty of farmer's markets and all of the vegetables are produced in by locals. also serenbe is built for pedestrians so they can reach every urban area in a 20 minute walk trought natural trails. Moreover 70% of their landscape is full of blueberries. This is a community where people live, work, learn and play in celebration of life’s beauty. A place where connections between people, nature and the arts are nourished. Serenbe is also a social space, a community where every neighbor produces for himself and for the community. Everyone can enjoy cultural performances such as music and theater. This is a community where people live, work, learn and play in celebration of life’s beauty. 

             "Serenbe is a utopian experiment in New Urbanism being molded out of Georgia red clay" The New York Times 

                   I reckon that Serenbe isn't a utopia as he says the New York Times. As far as I am concerned, Serenbe is an elitist form of "New urbanism", an idealized idea of a rural community accessible to a minority of people. Serenbe can't represent the myth because he isn't even close to it. Serenbe idealized the myth of the noble savage, they tried to reach a more savage lifestyle that is suppose to be happier, healthier and isolated of our corrupted society. However, Serenbe applicate this myth in the more ironical way. We have here a hypocritical community who promote a sustainable lifestyle against consumer society and a pollute world. But here the people live in the same amenities as any person living in the city. Materialistic commodities, streets, luxury houses... Serenbe isn't a utopia accesible to everybody. He is a paradise for rich who wants to separate them selves from the modern society, but not too much. They praise themselves for being more "natural" but they are not ready to give up there commodities that our current society provide. 

Nevertheless, we can ask ourselves if they might exist a utopian society?

The idea of the "utopian" community has a long, storied history, from the fictional island dreamed up by Sir Thomas More. French Enlightenment thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed if man could return to a state of nature – free from social conditioning that put him in conflict with his neighbor – then a new, perfect social order could emerge. This sounds like hopefully wishful thinking today, seekers attempting to leave behind the conventions and restrictions of traditional society and created self-sustaining communities like groups of hippies in rural Virginia to expatriates living in treehouses in the Costa Rican rainforest. We might think that the ingredients for a utopian society are love, nature, peace...






We may think that hippies are a "utopian" society who tries to run away from materialistic and who advocated nonviolence and love, as the popular phrase “Make love, not war,” for which they were sometimes called “flower children.” They promoted openness and tolerance as alternatives to the restrictions and regimentation they saw in middle-class society. They want to leave a sight the progress of society and connect with nature that symbolize freedom, love, peace... Hippie is a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The name derived from “hip,” a term applied to the Beats of the 1950s, such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who were generally considered to be the precursors of hippies. Although the movement arose in part as opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, hippies were often not directly engaged in politics. Hippies felt alienated from middle-class society, which they saw as dominated by materialism and repression, and they developed their own distinctive lifestyle. They favoured long hair and casual, often unconventional, dress, sometimes in “psychedelic” colors. Also they took up communal or cooperative living arrangements, and they often adopted vegetarian diets based on unprocessed foods and practiced holistic medicine. Still, they also promoted the use of hallucinogenic drugs, particularly marijuana and LSD, because they thank that the "head trips" expanded their consciousness. In spite of it, the idea of a cooperative community connect to nature where everything is chemical-free, energy-efficient, resource-saving, earth-conscious, organically produce, less wasteful, sustainable and naturally derived but accessible to everyone. New technologies might help but we need to leave a side our comfort and face the reality: If we don't do nothing now, we will have to face a mayor crisis that might end up our existence. But are we prepare to give up our well-being in order to connect with nature and ourselves? Has become a necessity to start an Eco-friendly lifestyle? Are we mental prepare to face the wild lifestyle?

"We have elevated ourselves and perceivably stand as the most powerful beings on earth. Yet our ego,  our fear and our relentless drive for profits have made us the only species willing to force this harmony with the natural balance of our world. we are the living consequence of forgone traditions. we suffer a collective amnesia of a truth that was once understood. The truth that cause irreversible damage to the Earth. WE ARE A DISEASE THAT IS INFECTING OUR PLANET." Jason MOMOA at the United Nations on September 27. The 40 year old actor made a his first speech about the dire consequence of climate change.