Xie 2
Utopia/Dystopia English
16 May 2016
Amata Community in Atlanta, Georgia
As the size of our community grows, I, the Penny Lord of S.P.O.G, feel the need to evaluate some other communities and learn from their advantages and flaws. The community that I investigated is a small-population community located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is called the Amata Community. The ultimate goal of this community is to live a good life inside the city. According to the Intentional Community website, the community is located in one of Atlanta’s most vibrant areas, and it is only four miles away from downtown ("Amata Community"). The community is fairly small comparing to our S.P.O.G community; there are only 28 adult members. After reading their information on the website, I found a few advantages and defects in this community.
The first advantage that Amata has is its green space. Living in cities, people get tired of all the pollution and heavy workload. They want to escape from the crowd and enjoy the nature. Amata is definitely a good option. Although it is close to the city, it has lots of green space, which attracts many people. The second advantage is that there is no religion requirement. There are many communities that require their members to believe in certain religions. Amata is different; current residents there are spiritual but not passionately religious. The third one is that they have many activities inside the community. The website states that, “For fun there are various neighborhood festivals that as well as drum circles and other musical events” ("Amata Community"). Having fun events will be able to make its members content and united.
Although the Amata Community is still a well-functioning society so far, the defects it has may ruin the community. First, Amata has a loose form of government. On their website, it states that, “we have 4 core decision makers/owners and 24 residents who rent rooms and have input on some issues” ("Amata Community"). It can be dangerous when the government does not have complete control of its citizens, especially when the government is weak. Amata even allows the residents to have some influences on their society. It is an unbelievably false decision; too much democracy will only lead to arguments, chaos, and eventually the destruction of the society. Second, the community has no labor requirements. People may become lazy and refuse to do any work. There is no one to force them to go to work. Third, the community is not isolated from the outside world. Residents have easy access to go to public places. It increases the danger of losing the community’s population.
In conclusion, the Amata Community now seems to survive pretty well, but as the community grows bigger, the weak government will probably lose the control over its residents. When the population becomes diverse, there will be more opinions and arguments. If the government fails to keep everyone under control, the community will eventually break apart. The best advice I have for Amata is to make their government stronger.
Works Cited
"Amata Community." Fellowship for Intentional Community. N.p., 27 Jan. 2005. Web. 16 May 2016.