Christopher Alexander was interviewed recently on radio in Australia. He mentioned that several years ago he had been appointed part of the planning approvals process for Pasadena housing units.
His contribution was to insist that the developers show how their proposal would benefit the larger unit – the street, suburb, or the city of Pasadena. This was greeted with incredulity.
“Are you a communist?” he was asked.
Personally I’m an anarchist who believes that the freedom of the individual to determine their own destiny and to take responsibility for their own moral choices is paramount – but nevertheless it’s impossible to overstate how sick a society must be to fail to understand the primacy of that question.
“How does your action benefit the whole?”