Anchorhead

Anchorhead is a town in the Vallachia Department of Oranjestad. It is known for its Ten Guiding Principles, which help foster a unique and eccentric community.

History

In the 12th-13th centuries, Anchorhead was a minor and short-lived, but prosperous emirate ruled by nearby Balesgar (1155-1231). Contemporary writings describe Anchorhead at the time as very flourishing despite its small extent.

The city lost most of its importance during the mid fourteenth century after Balesgar withdrew from the region.

Anchorhead suffered enormously during the Drought of 1822. Western travelers in mid eighteen hundreds had found Anchorhead, a town with around 70 households, in wretched condition. Their impression was that the local princes hastened to collect as much wealth as possible during the famine, and left the town to wither.

Anchorhead was the epicenter of the Baker Beach Counter-Culture Revolution in 1969, led by Larry Harvey. Harvey, an Oranjestad citizen from Pennsy, helped to revitalize the town when he and hundreds of his followers descended on the area in the late sixties. The town was considered a de facto Oranjestad-controlled community by 1980, and was formalized as such in a 1998 referendum.

Ten Guiding Principles

Anchorhead still embodies the counter-culture from the 1960's. This community spirit persists thanks to the Ten Guiding Principles, first outlined by Larry Harvey. These were not crafted as a dictate of how people should be and act, but rather as a reflection of the community's ethos and culture as it had organically developed since the community's inception.

Radical Inclusion

Anyone may be a part of Anchorhead. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting

Anchorhead is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification

In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance

Anchorhead encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression

Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort

Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility

We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace

Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation

Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy

Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.