Tradgedy

From the beginning, what Marshall Rosenberg terms the "tragedy" of needs expressed in ways that cause defensiveness on both sides, rather than getting them met, was encoded in the Arcosanti experience. The first site manager, Bob Walker, had departed with bad feeling. I sensed that Paolo's need to feel he could trust his managers not to rebel informed all subsequent decisions on personnel. The following generation of baby boomers who made up the bulk of participants were in no mood to live under authoritarian management. But many also left because they saw no chance to build Arcosanti with the method of molasses-like incrementalism and amateur workers. It was seen as not serious, partly because they hired people like me. Doug Lee and Don Yoshino were the type of people who had produced the drawings and models for the Black Book and the Cocoran exhibit: serious professionals from a culture of extreme discipline like Tomiaki. Their condescension for the dropouts and art students who began work at the site was palpable if understandable. My sense is that up until the beginning of Arcosanti, Paolo had attracted a more refined group of participants to earlier workshops [and subsequent ones?]. Was Paolo's take on apprenticeship shaped by an Italian tradition of abusing apprentices or by Frank Lloyd Wright? In any case, during my tenure there was no consciousness of work shoppers as a resource to be invested in whatsoever. I've always seen this as the greatest mistake, a wound reopened every time there is an effort to tap the energy of former participants. I would be shocked if more than a handful returned for Paolo's 90th birthday in these difficult times. The project has always reflected this sense that participants and of the public ought to give financial support solely because it's such a good idea, irrespective of their experience of dealing with people who would be deciding how to spend this money. How is that working?

What I felt then, I now know to be true: that being a lightning rod for the work shoppers [and stafffers?] unmet needs was a gift, a responsibility in a way, to be their advocate. They came with so much to give, priceless positive energy, future positions of influence in society, and an amazing spirit of openness and generosity. I do not believe for a moment that work shoppers could have built Arcosanti, but I do believe that former work shoppers could have done so. There will never be a sustainable compact town on that Mesa where everyone's needs are met until those work shoppers' unmet needs are addressed and acknowledged.