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I just read a great book called Paradise Now about 5 different Utopian movements in the US, Oneida being one of them. It seems the most successful colonies blen
by natecarroll 10y ago
I just read a great book called Paradise Now about 5 different Utopian movements in the US, Oneida being one of them. It seems the most successful colonies blended business savvy with a coherent set of values and cultivated familial closeness. Capitalist individualism obviously dominated the 20th century, but I can imagine a tech-focused system of common ownership making a comeback.
https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Now-Story-American-Utopianism/dp/0812993705/ref=sr_1_3 https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Now-Story-American-Utopianis...
- toasterlovin 10y agoBut isn't the common thread that all of these groups ultimately failed?
- beat 10y agoThe Amanas (mentioned downthread) are still around.
- cjensen 10y agoSure. But according to Wikipedia, they abandoned communal ownership of property in 1932. Seems like the common thread is still that all attempts at fully communal systems fail sooner or later. Successful group ownership of a business by the workers is pretty common; it just has to stop short of a commune.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- zepto 10y agoIt's possible that they fail because they have to operate against a capitalist backdrop.
- omginternets 10y agoIt's also possible (and, I would argue, more probable) that they fail because for any sedentary peoples, the accumulation of material wealth is inevitable, and such accumulation is unequal. Thus, some degree of "capitalist individualism" grows organically out of sedentary societies. The only successful societies with anything resembling fully-shared ownership are those which can't accumulate much of anything. I say this not to defend ultra-liberal capitalism or anything, but rather to point out that utopias tend to be very artificial (and therefore short-lived) constructs.
- zepto 10y agoUltra-liberal capitalism is also very artificial
- omginternets 10y agoRespectfully, that's a very loaded statement, as evidenced by the absence of a clearly-stated point. My reaction is twofold: 1. You seem to be implying that ultra-liberal capitalist societies abound. I disagree to the extent that most economies/political-systems incorporate social elements that tend to push the dial back towards resource sharing. I do, however, concede that there has been a trend towards liberalism in recent decades, but this is accompanied by increasing social instability. I don't see how your comment constitutes a counter-point in this respect. 2. It's not really artificial given the two priors discussed above: a) accumulation of wealth (and the subsequent inequalities in entrains) b) low social trust Again, this should not be interpreted as a defense of ultra-liberal capitalism, but I think it's so entrenched precisely because it follows naturally from the aforementioned preconditions.
- Symmetry 10y agoIt's also wrapped up in the move from hunting and gathering to farming. Hunting is relatively random and while skill plays a role you can't rely on it. Also excess meat won't last too long so why not share? Farming is more reliable and when bad luck hits it often hits an entire group at once. And it involved more unpleasant labor to farm a lot of food meaning incentives become more important.
- rmcpherson 10y agoI know of one [1], the Bruderhof, that maintains communal ownership of property and has existed for almost 100 years. It's not easy to do, though, so perhaps an exception that proves the rule. They do have some thriving businesses that make surviving in a capitalist world possible [2]. [1] source: I was born and spent my childhood there [2] http://www.communityplaythings.com/ http://www.communityplaythings.com/ http://www.rifton.com/ http://www.rifton.com/
- toasterlovin 10y agoThe anabaptist religious movements are fascinating. There are Mennonite sects in the US and Canada who live communally and have also lasted a relatively long time.
- beat 10y agoThere's a large Mennonite colony just south of the Amana colonies in eastern Iowa. Apparently, they have little interaction (not that they hate each other, they just don't do business together), but we'd see them both. In Iowa City, we'd see Mennonites in town, actually shopping at Wal-Mart and the like. The Amanas were a much rarer sight unless you actually went to the Amana colonies (which we did regularly, because the restaurants there are some of my favorite places to eat ever).
- firebones 10y agoOne interesting thing from the aforementioned (or below-mentioned) wikipedia entry for the Amana Colonies is that they adopted the notion of a basic income (of $25-$50) to be spent at village stores, keeping the money within the community. This is one take on UBI I haven't seen before--directly channeling collective money back into the local economy.
- Gargoyle 10y agoCapitalist individualism will ultimately fail too. Nothing lasts forever.
- toasterlovin 10y agoCare to elaborate? Most of these cults/communes don't make it past the first decade. The longest lasting ones rarely make it past a century. So far "capitalist individualism" seems to have a better track record than that.
- rbanffy 10y agoCapitalism, when not regulated, tends to increase inequality. This will, eventually, lead to instability and a societal reset.
- Symmetry 10y agoWe've tried almost entirely unregulated capitalism. Inequality increased, but only up to a point. It didn't increase without bound.
- toasterlovin 10y agoCapitalism doesn't need to be perfect in order to be a better system for organizing a society than communism.
- rbanffy 10y agoOTOH, communism doesn't need to be perfect to be better than unregulated capitalism.
- zbyte64 10y agoBefore that we had other systems that lasted just as long. Mercantilism had a good run for 3 centuries.
- wyager 10y agoAs long as there is resource scarcity and property rights, capitalism is a stable proposition. I think you'll find some physical issues with eliminating resource scarcity, and I'd rather not give up my right to own things.
- vvpan 10y agoPerhaps the point of communes is not to convert the whole world forever, but to create the world you envision around yourself. Temporality becomes real only when one has a vantage point in the future and through written record. That it did not last until this very moment does not make a commune or a set of any conditions any less real to the people who participated in it. So I don't think one can say that they "failed", they actually succeeded.
- toasterlovin 10y agoWe can choose to define our terms however we want, I guess, but the bottom line is that these communes all set out to start some kind of community and the communities they created no longer exist. In my book, that is a failure to achieve the objective.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- k-mcgrady 10y ago>> "[They] all set out to start some kind of community" >> "the communities they created" So the objective was to start a community, which you say they did.
- zbyte64 10y agoCall it an experiment. Sure the communities failed, but they succeeded in giving insightful social data.
- jerf 10y agoLess sizable communes survive to at least some extent. I work in the Ann Arbor area and I hear from my coworkers that there's a lot of them around here, farther out of town where the land is cheap. I don't know any details personally, though, so I don't know where they range from what you'd really consider a "commune" through to "a fancy homeowners association" or "coop with a hippie-friendly label". Partially I post this to solicit anyone who does know better to contribute.
- toasterlovin 10y agoBut the fact that there always seem to be communes in existence doesn't imply that they are successful. All it means is that there is some baseline portion of the population who are interested in the idea of living communally and who then start communes. Go on something like IC.org (communes like to call themselves intentional communities). If you dig into them, most of the listings do not seem to be for successful, thriving endeavors.
- Shinkei 10y agoIn the long view of history, all societies will fail. Is three generations of success enough to qualify it as a success? I don't know. But it's subjective to say it failed.
- toasterlovin 10y agoBut that's like saying Mars isn't necessarily a better planet for humans than Earth because eventually the entire solar system will become uninhabitable. Perfection is not required for one system to be better than another. Communes don't work. Most never get off the ground. The ones that do rarely make it longer than a decade. And there are basically none that have lasted longer than a century (the only group I am aware of in North America are some sects of Mennonites). Whereas essentially the entire developed world lives and thrives without the concept of communal property (outside of marriage).
- jbrun 10y agoExcellent book indeed.
- elihu 10y agoThe Good Life [1] is an interesting account by Scott and Helen Nearing of living in a self-sufficient way (motivated largely by the great depression and a desire to isolate themselves from the ups and downs of the larger economy). It did sound pretty appealing when I read it to live in a more primitive way and have to deal with less of the stresses of modern life. It would require a very different set of skills than I have now, though. I could see communes or something like them coming back as a way of sharing the cost of purchasing land. Where I live, houses are pretty expensive and rural land is only available in large (also expensive) lots. A group of people could conceivably pool their resources to buy a large lot in the countryside and then put up an apartment building (assuming the local zoning laws have any exploitable loopholes that allow that sort of thing). [1] https://www.amazon.com/Good-Life-Nearings-Self-Sufficient-Living/dp/0805209700 https://www.amazon.com/Good-Life-Nearings-Self-Sufficient-Li...
- shermozle 10y agoThe Nearings were pretty puritanical though... They lived a very stark existence. But the base idea was pretty awesome: devote 50% of your time to "bread work" and do whatever you like the rest of the time.
- rmcpherson 10y agoI haven't read the good life but this immediately reminded me of the song by Pete Seeger "Maple Syrup Time" where he mentions Scott and Helen. Looks like it's referenced in the book as well. https://books.google.ca/books?id=iumQ0TLXESkC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=maple+syrup+time+pete+seeger+scott+and+helen&source=bl&ots=7s7SHo4Mj-&sig=NHMFapCQVhztUdHJYEfdiYTIV28&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjeoqH9uq3RAhWGPxQKHdKUAe8Q6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=maple%20syrup%20time%20pete%20seeger%20scott%20and%20helen&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=iumQ0TLXESkC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA... Strangely enough, I grew up singing this song in a commune that did not fail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruderhof_Communities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruderhof_Communities
- secabeen 10y ago>A group of people could conceivably pool their resources to buy a large lot in the countryside and then put up an apartment building (assuming the local zoning laws have any exploitable loopholes that allow that sort of thing). This is generally executed as Co-Housing, these days.