Settlers of Kensington

Yesterday Jeremy and I showed up at 3200 Potter Street in Philadelphia's Kensington neighorhood to see if we could get a little tour of The Simple Way, and possibly hook up with Shane Claiborne (we were at Wheaton together). He's out on a hitchhiking vacation, but we did get a good sense of the community from his housemate Tim. Apparently turnover is a significant issue: after Shane, Tim is the most senior, and he hasn't been there a year yet. My sister-in-law Grace helped start a similar community in Chicago, Kedzie House, which has the same issue. Recall that Benedict's first demand was stability.

Shane's recent book, The Irresitible Revolution, is inspiring. Last night, back at the manse, we played Settlers of Catan, which is a sort of Age of Discovery Monopoly. The game is a perfect little distillation of capitalism. It's all competitive empire building. The winner controls the resources and is savvy in trading, with a little luck too. Trading may appear to be a win-win in the short term, but it's about power, not relationship, and trust is quickly broken. You hold your cards close. It soon becomes clear who is in the game and who also-ran, who has the privilege of talking to whom. Those on the outs lose hope and motivation, while the thrill of victory is like a dirty, addictive adrenaline. No player is really upstanding, but clearly, the black guy is the robber:

Then it hit us: Settlers of Catan is also a great place to experiment with the sort of alternative economy that Shane is preaching. First, I laid my cards out so that everyone could see them. Then, I started announcing my goals outloud: "I'm trying to build a few more roads and then a city." We realized I could help out the loser in the game at little cost to myself, and he became engaged again. By the time he had moved from hopelessness to resenting my charity, he was back in the game and didn't need any more charity. The winner never quite caught the vision, and ended up winning anyway. But the other two of us had a much more creative and satisfying experience cooperating rather than competing.

Not that it's ever really left me (think open source), but I think it's time to start thinking about alternative economy again.