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. This is how I feel when destructive people rip apart a good group of people with violence, hate and abuse of power.
I was raised in an intentional Christian community. Here's some photos of me as a kid (in the blue dress) and after the first houses were built:
I’ve been actively studying/living in online and other real-life intentional communities for many years.
The community I was raised in and which I currently live has a few similarities to the Amish, in that sharing and having close relationships is at the heart of life here. In some respects, I did not fit in very well as a kid due to my disinterest in religion, starting from early childhood and continuing on today.
I never quite believed what the fanatical Christian adults in my community wanted me to believe. It just never made much sense to me and most of it seemed utterly absurd. But the social pressure was enormous and I found myself just wanting to fit in. But at age 8 I ran a series of my own tests which disproved the adults’ assertions that God performed miracles such as moving stationary objects, etc. After running my tests, I came to the conclusion that the adults were making up random stuff based on their faulty emotionally-driven mental religious constructs. Each of these adults had a different story and none of them correlated.
I never quite believed them and because I sometimes questioned their ideas, I was routinely told that I was “going to hell.”
Their threats and use of brainwashing techniques on me never worked and so at an early age I came to the conclusion that religion is a failed attempt to answer questions too uncomfortable for most human beings to deal with. I’ve had the same ideas about this my entire life and the only time I “prayed to God” was when I thought my airplane was going to crash. That was it, the only time I felt weak enough to pray.
I moved away from my community when I became an adult. It was only fairly recently that I moved back. So for the vast part of my adulthood, I lived the way most Americans do: single, or coupled, in an apartment or house, isolated from others even though they are living right next to me.
Around 2011, I realized I needed to become more integrated into society for survival purposes. Being a single parent makes for a very vulnerable existence. I’m an atheist, so becoming a church member was out of the question. For the most part, I don’t really like groups, as I tend to disagree with the way they are run. I am fiercely independent in many ways, but I wanted to try something different that solved my problems of isolation and future survival. Most women in my situation simply go looking for another man, but in my case, I was so psychologically damaged, I wanted nothing to do with men, as they symbolized violence and pain to me. After a few years after leaving my abuser, I started to regain my old self as I applied various techniques to remove the effects of the abuse I’d received from my psychopath. I am pretty much over the bad experience, but I will never see people in the same naive way as before.
So, in 2011, I found and became a member of a group called Emerald City KC which had formed in one of the most racially-divided areas of my city. An area that real estate developers and politicians of the past had on purpose divided the whites from the non-whites. It was written into the law from the earliest days: “No non-white people shall live West of Troost.”
The road that separates whites from blacks is called Troost.
East of Troost is black, West of Troost is white. The city is still divided, but no one talks about it. Most of the poverty and most of the violent crime is East of Troost. Many homes are abandoned, foreclosure rates are high. Schools are being closed. It looks like a war zone in certain areas.
Image: Franny and her husband
Emerald City KC sought to bring new perspectives to a racially divided area. It was essentially an urban ecovillage that was led by a visionary white female entrepreneur named Franny Knight. The group members were mostly creative types, free thinkers, artists, visionaries, eco types, basically anyone who rejected mainstream, religious, corporate lifestyle. Soon, the community grew and creative expression was the central focus of the group. Artists flocked to the area, people moved in, the vibe was good and shit was getting done. Anarchists became attracted to Emerald City too, and soon joined up. There were no rules actually, no codes of conduct, no religious affiliations, nothing. Emerald City was an open slate and evolved according to a voluntary structure. If you had an idea, you presented it to see if anyone from the group liked your idea, and if they did, your idea got traction and became a reality.
Image Source: EC house is on left, the house on right sprung up as an artist’s cooperative.
Due to the visionary and creative nature of the leader, Franny, things happened super fast. This is Franny and she usually had a big smile on her face:
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She and her friends bought a house on Troost that became the central hub of Emerald City.
Franny was an open communicator, a tolerant creative thinker and a catalyst for action. People began helping to clean up neighborhoods, move into abandoned houses, etc. I invited the EC members to help me clean up a huge pile of abandoned wood and materials in my community so they could use them for building:
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Soon, a retired teacher bought a building across from EC, started up a neighborhood preschool with volunteer help from the Emerald City folks. We all helped lay down tiles and clean up the interior. The preschool was designed to help parents who couldn’t afford the costs of childcare. Then a center opened for community groups next to the neighborhood prechool.
A community and EC garden were started along with a compost bin.
Image: EC member working on EC garden
And then a well-known anarchist bought up another nearby building and a monthly neighborhood arts night event was established at the Emerald City house. People were helping to clean up areas, move into abandoned houses, etc. Shit was getting done and the vibe was really good.
Here’s a video I shot at the art hop during the height of the Emerald City movement:
Fun street parties flourished, artists were active even though there were some power struggles and disagreements, at least the art hop event was gaining traction and thriving. Racial tension always existed but in the early days people were free to create their own community projects and establish their own houses. It was the golden era of community life, free from control and coercion.
Image Source: Emerald City KC
Here’s one of the early, most active, prominent members who bought up empty lots and put his sculptures in them:
This group was not religious. It accepted everyone and it didn’t ask questions or have any defined rules about how to deal with violence, criminals and abusive people.
Then, about one year after it was started, trouble started. Power struggles ensued, hardcore. Weird, violent stuff began to occur.
The first thing to happen had to do with human sexuality. One of the most prominent male members started sleeping with two different women in the group. He would be with one for a long time, then he’d switch to #2. Well, it turned out that #2 was as mentally insane as you can get. She was also a poet, a very passionate person, creative, and absolutely mad to the core. Some think she had multiple personalities.
I saw her on many occasions and one day she was normal and the next she was ready to rip someone’s head off. She verbally and viciously attacked people and I believe this was fueled by being rejected by her man, who was sleeping with another woman. On another level, she was just insane, no doubt about it. She was a white woman and I believe in many ways, she hated her own whiteness. She started dividing the group into white vs. black. Her attacks, many of which emerged during Emerald City meetings also made people wary and uncomfortable. People began wishing to avoid her.
Over time, through her insanity and violence, she divided up the EC group into 2 warring factions.
At this same time, the neighborhood gang presence began to show itself at the neighborhood art parties. Soon, there was talk that guns were being hidden in the back yard of the Emerald City house. Some of the young neighborhood guys who had dabbled with EC began talking about carrying out retribution murders. One guy I talked to told me about how one of his friend’s had been killed and how he intended to go and hunt down his killer. Gang members began coming to the parties and sizing up women, sort of claiming their territory like rabid wolves.
About this same time, the well-known anarchist, for reasons no one knows, slashed the tires of someone’s car.
It also leaked out that he had attempted to rape a woman in his building on Troost. It was rumored that this anarchist had some dealings with people in the past that went sour and that he was currently at war with them.
Another thing that had been happening was that the neighborhood black Christian leaders, who were mostly male, didn’t like the idea of a white woman running a non-religious group in their turf. The most ironic thing about this is that Franny, the leader of EC was married to a black man. These leaders began spreading the rumor that Emerald City was the devil’s work and that it needed to be destroyed as soon as possible. Franny on many occasions welcomed these leaders and invited them to learn about her group’s mission. I think they were really upset when Franny wouldn’t allow them to do a group prayer at one of Emerald City’s meetings.
To add insult to injury, the locals began cracking down on people smoking weed in the community garden and they took away funding from the primary gardener who mostly created and maintained the community garden on her own.
This gardener was an amazing source of community spirit, caring and knowledge. Karma doesn’t get any better than the kind she had. Here she is during that time:
Image Source: Emerald City KC
So, basically, when you add up all these things together, the complete dissolution of the group happened pretty fast.
I dropped out of Emerald City when the gang members started hiding guns in EC’s backyard.
At that time, I had a 2 year-old daughter and it just wasn’t worth it to me to find a solution to the prospect of gang violence infecting our group.
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So, #2 woman was literally destroying the harmony of the group and dealing with her psychological warfare was draining the energy from everyone.
The destruction of Emerald City KC can be distilled into the following:
No one had put in place a plan to deal with members who were violently insane and who attacked others. Emerald City had no rules of membership and no formal code of conduct. It also had no official way of banning members.
Religious, racial and gender intolerance. Many of the black church leaders in the community began attacking our group saying it was the devil’s work. Christianity has a long history of intolerance of atheists. And Emerald City was considered an atheist group since it had no religious affiliation. Black leaders also wanted us out because we were mostly white and they lumped us together with slave owners. Even though we were doing volunteer work and assisting locals with many things, our presence was not welcome. Misogyny also played a role as many male leaders hated a female-run organization.
Gang presence and violent criminal activity. The area that EC was in was near gang-controlled regions. Gang leaders began showing up to the EC parties and there were reports that guns from the gangs were being hidden on the grounds. The EC parties were reminiscent of a different time before the gangs showed up. Young people had creative art shows, played music, danced, talked about revolutionary new ideas, etc. We set up a communal garden, helped build a school, supported each other, and welcomed anyone no matter what their background. I got to know a few neighborhood kids who were on the fringe of either joining a gang or becoming an artist. Our community supported the arts and free expression so I feel we were a force of positive change. But me being white, I think this phrase applies: “sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Gangs quickly moved in on the action at Emerald City and began exerting their control and dominance over people, places and things.
Here’s what I learned from this experience:
-For the formation of any group, recruit core members who are mentally stable and who know how to resolve conflicts peacefully. You don’t have to be perfect, you just need to have social skills that enable you seek solutions that exist outside of violence. These people have to be carefully selected and these people are the ones who should be given more power and resources. If the wrong people are given power, then the results will be disastrous.
-The existence of a group of highly committed people who are not filled with hate brings about a peaceful environment that is able to withstand the stress of open discussions, disagreements and the cultivation of new ideas. Innovation thrives.
-After this core has been established, and the group is functioning pretty well, then some groundwork needs to be created in order to deal with those who are mentally unstable who enter into it. A conflict resolution specialist group needs to be formed who can be counted on to sort out personal disputes. This main person must be as neutral and helpful as possible.
-If one person stands out as a violent and abusive person over a fairly long time and they have not worked out their disputes, then the group needs to come together and decide if the group is being divided by this one individual. If it is, then measures need to be put in place to shun this person and potentially ban them. This is a last resort action, done in order to preserve the health and cohesion of the group. I've studied this one aspect extensively in intentional communities and all the successful ones which are still in existence follow this guideline.
Because the Emerald City group had never considered how to deal with the things that eventually destroyed it, it was unable to function and survive.
I’ve seen a few terrible people ruin an entire organization over and over again in life. I’m very familiar with the signs of a dying ship. Preparing for challenges and having a clear vision for a group is the start of creating true community. If the top tier of a group is warring, then the cohesion and strength of a group is greatly weakened, thus making it unstable.
Stability can be created by recognizing a faulty power structure, redesigning it and addressing personal conflicts.
It sounds easy, but it’s one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Humans have not evolved very much in this arena, compared to technology. Free and open discussion is paramount to the success of any organization, online or offline. If people do not feel free to speak openly and challenge the existing power structure, you will see collapse eventually.