This first draft of the Manifesto for Non-Coercive Communitarianism outlines the purpose and principles of communitaria— evolving communities designed to counter isolation and enable collective agency. It emphasizes active participation, shared responsibility, cosmopolitan engagement, and openness to critique while rejecting coercion, ideological rigidity, and dogma. While communitaria may begin online, they are intended to evolve into real-world infrastructures for collaborative political, economic, and civic efforts. This document is a work in progress, open to suggestions, refinement, and collaboration.
View article
View summary
Preamble: What We Mean by Communitarianism
Non-coercive communitarianism is
not a dogma, a rigid ideology, or a utopian blueprint. It is an evolving framework for fostering
shared social life, cooperative meaning-making, and deliberative autonomy, resisting both the atomization of capitalist individualism and the enclosures of authoritarian collectivism. We distinguish ourselves from other so-called "communitarian" movements that may attempt to impose rigid ideological conformity, hierarchical control, or exclusionary gatekeeping.
Core Principles
The Purpose of Communitaria
Communitaria are designed as spaces to counteract social fragmentation, offering a meaningful alternative to isolation, helplessness, and despair. While they may initially form as online platforms, primarily enabling symbolic interaction and engagement, their purpose extends beyond virtual connection. Over time, they are intended to evolve into robust infrastructures that facilitate real-world coordination for political, economic, civic, environmental, nutritional, educational, and other collective efforts. The goal is to empower individuals to become part of an active "us" that can realistically address challenges that would be insurmountable in isolation.
Communitaria are an attempt to
overcome the social fragmentations that result in isolation, helplessness, and despair. They seek to create a collective in which individuals can meaningfully become part of an "us." In the face of dangers, threats, and injustices, communitaria make it
realistic to imagine that "we" can act where it would be unimaginable for an isolated "I" to do so.Balancing Community Needs and Individual Agency
We recognize that while the needs of the community should always be genuinely and realistically considered, they are
not assumed to be inherently paramount. A truly non-coercive community balances collective well-being with
individual autonomy, ensuring that communal priorities do not suppress personal agency or ethical diversity.
Privacy as a Resource, Not a Fetish
Under current hegemonies, privacy is often weaponized—either through its erosion via surveillance or its fetishization as an individualistic retreat.
We seek to cultivate a community where privacy is always accessible and respected, but where the need for privacy is reduced because trust, transparency, and collective security replace the conditions that make hyper-individualized privacy necessary.Clarifying Terms: Communitaria vs. The Communitarium Project
"Communitaria" is a
plural term, referring to multiple communities or instances of communal organization.
"The Communitarium Project" is singular, referring specifically to our overarching initiative in fostering non-coercive communitarianism.
The Shared Responsibility of Public Expression
One of the hoped-for effects of
communitaria is that they serve as platforms through which members
and groups may
speak to the larger world. Any member who "publishes" using the resources of The Communitarium Project should recognize that their work
bears not only their own name but also reflects, to some degree, their membership in the community.
- Members are answerable to their community for what they publish.
- The community, in turn, shares some responsibility and interest in what is published in its name.
- This balance ensures that public discourse remains deliberative, accountable, and open to critique while avoiding coercion or censorship.
It is hoped that the combined effects of the shared responsibility of public expression and the pursuit of cosmopolitan communitarianism will lead different communitaria to develop distinct collective "personalities" and even "characters.".
Cosmopolitan Communitarianism: The Ethos of Being Observed
We believe that
being seen by others—both within and beyond our community—has a salutary effect, that
mutual observation, both at the level of individuals and communities, fosters ethical responsibility, openness, and a commitment to shared humanity.
- Our communitarianism is not inward-looking or insular but cosmopolitan—rooted in connection, dialogue, and accountability beyond any single community.
- We embrace public visibility as a means of ethical engagement, resisting the impulse to retreat into obscured enclaves or ideological echo chambers.
- Diverse perspectives strengthen, rather than weaken, communal bonds, and engagement with broader networks is vital to maintaining intellectual and moral integrity.
We believe that a
community that is both self-reflective and outward-facing is one that thrives without coercion, and that accountability to a larger world deepens rather than dilutes shared commitments.- Participation is Active and Non-Coercive
- Membership in communitaria carries responsibilities. It is not simply a matter of having one's name recorded or being a passive observer. Membership must be contingent on some form of active participation, visible to and evaluable by the community as a whole. The "us" formed by communitaria must be an active collective, where engagement is a function of mutual benefit, genuine interest, and shared effort—not mere presence or symbolic affiliation.
- Dissent, debate, and exit are not failures of the system; they are its vital functions.
- Interpretation is Open and Contestable
- Meaning is not dictated from above but emerges through dialogue, negotiation, and collective praxis.
- There are no unquestionable authorities—no sacred texts, no infallible leaders, no closed systems of thought.
- Decentralized and Distributed Power
- Leadership is temporary, rotating, and accountable, ensuring that no one individual or group accumulates unchecked influence.
- Structures of governance should reflect bottom-up deliberation, not top-down imposition.
- Refusal of Dogma and Epistemic Closure
- We recognize that absolute certainty is a form of intellectual enclosure. We reject rigid doctrines that attempt to freeze meaning, eliminate ambiguity, or suppress interpretive flexibility.
- Our process should be dynamic and self-correcting, drawing from multiple traditions, disciplines, and experiences.
- Communitarianism Without Authoritarianism
- Some projects calling themselves "communitarian" seek to enforce social cohesion through surveillance, forced conformity, or ideological policing.
- We reject this model. Belonging must be chosen, not enforced. Shared values should emerge through lived experience and mutual deliberation, not through imposed orthodoxy.
- Schmooze-Level Sociality as Fundamental
- Human social life is not reducible to formal structures, bureaucracies, or rigid protocols.
- Informal, improvisational, relational interactions—what we call "schmooze-level sociality"—are the primary means through which meaning is maintained, challenged, and evolved.
- Our systems must remain flexible enough to accommodate fluid, dynamic, and everyday forms of human interaction.
- Public Deliberation Over Institutionalized Doctrine
- Ideas must remain public, open, and contestable rather than ossified into institutional structures that resist challenge.
- The only legitimate foundation of collective action is the shared participation in meaning-making, not coercion or the appeal to past authority.
- No Hard Boundaries Between "Inside" and "Outside"
- Unlike cults or sectarian movements that seek to sharply delineate insiders from outsiders, non-coercive communitarianism must recognize that human networks are fluid, overlapping, and always in negotiation.
- We resist purity spirals, ideological tests, and demands for total commitment.
- Deliberative Ethics Over Moral Absolutism
- Rather than rigid moral codes, we advocate a continuous process of ethical deliberation, evolving with changing circumstances and perspectives.
- Ethical inquiry should be participatory, not imposed by fiat.
Communitarianism as a Practice, Not a Creed
We do not seek to
construct an alternate reality sealed off from the wider world. Non-coercive communitarianism is
a method of engagement, not a retreat from complexity. It is a way of living
amidst plurality, contradiction, and uncertainty without reducing them to simplistic formulas.
Conclusion: An Experiment, Not a Program
This manifesto is not a static declaration but
an ongoing inquiry. If it ever
ossifies into doctrine, it should be discarded and rewritten. Our goal is not to create
an enclosed system, but a living process—one that can remain responsive, flexible, and attuned to the shifting conditions of human social life.
If what we are building ever starts to resemble a cult, a dogma, or a closed ideology, we must have the courage to dismantle it and begin again.
