Welcome to the blog for the new GOLDMAN MILL Peace Collective, a project of Grateful Dread Peace Media‘s Armchair Activist Project.

The title sums up the reason behind all of this: For fun and edification, I have created a fantasy world, a virtual community focused on progressive-pacifist principles and values. If you are among the few who heard of the now-defunct Nottington Village Peace Project, this is a reworking of that. If NV does not ring a bell for you, let me explain:

GOLDMAN MILL, the township of my creation, is completely cyber-based. Most of the inhabitants are characters, the place is a figment of my imagination (still trying to figure out where in the world it exists, though we are leaning toward New England or Canada). The idea behind this activity is to build a green-centered community filled with lefty-prog people of peace who live and work together to create a fab progressive life for them (and anyone who wants to join the ride) and a better world overall.

In the conceit of this endeavor, it’s best to take it all at face value: The people and organizations exist, the work they do and the way in which they live their lives carries on from day-to-day (and much of it will have real-world components so real good occurs), and we who watch (and build) the township get to indulge our creativity, make friends, and put something beautiful, educational, and motivating into the world that promotes the ideals that guide us in our real lives.

This blog will be a record of what goes on within Goldman Mill, residents’ lives, what’s in development, what we are learning and what we are doing in terms of activism and altruism to promote our message of justice, peace, equality, and sustainable living. Yes, it’s all make-believe, but it will be written and presented as if it is all real and coming from Mill citizen and town administrator ND Connell (and sometimes in the voices of other residents). Why? It helps us envision what the real world would be like if people banded together for good and lived their lives in this sort of setting. It also helps us educate anyone who visits this blog or the virtual town in the ways of progressive living.

This can be of great benefit to everyone: People all over the world are working toward a world like this and for the ability to live like this — free from institutionalized bigotry, well rid of control-freak laws that restrict our individual freedoms for no real good, safe from threat of violence within our collective, committed to principles and community rather than selfishness and materialism, blessed with leaders who serve rather than govern and whose first motivation is compassion.  Is this sort of life truly  possible? Goldman Mill presents an opportunity to try it on for size and see.

So: Suspend disbelief. Dive in. Check on the daily doings within The Mill. Watch how we grow over time, and, if you want, do more than watch — join in the fun and real-world do-gooding.

The buildings you’ll see and links presented come from our virtual town hall (main hub site), the new main village site now being constructed at SmallWorlds, and the various Goldman Mill Peace Society outreach outposts on Web-based virtual-reality game sites Yoville and Miniplanet. We are rebuilding due to the consecutive shutdowns of the servers that hosted our entire village (both now gone, alas). But GM lives on and a rash of rebuilding is under way, so give it a look and help us in our efforts to create this cyber-based Town of Peace and to make the real world a better place.  If, after checking us out, you find your beliefs are like ours and you want to participate as a member of and contributor to our virtual peace collective, send us email and we’ll talk.

First, however, learn about life in Goldman Mill — we’ll be posting in real-voice and RP throughout our building efforts. If you feel you belong, you’ll figure it out. And if you do discern that this should be “home” for you, please drop us a line via email or send us a comment and say hey now.