Walden Two

This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it pictures a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct.

Quotes and thoughts while reading:

I think it would be wonderful to visit a Utopian construct, especially during it's first years or months of development. I have a number of issues with the utopia laid out in Walden Two. But let's first take note of some of the things they had right.

Their general rules of conduct are definitely one of their strong points. The code of conduct, down to the simple idea that "you should explain your work to any member who is interested" leaves a lot of space for growth within the community. This idea that if someone wishes to learn it, and you have the capacity to teach them, you should.

The behavioral engineering done with children is really interesting. I don't know if I think it's fair to do that to kids, but at the same time, isn't that what every family is doing individually? There isn't an accepted way to raise your children, so why not raise them as a community, with the same values, and see how those values trickle through them? You run the risk of great danger, or great reward.

I am also really curious how you could work out jealousy in a community. I guess, when you have the opportunity to do whatever job you want, to be allowed to fail at it, but to try it, and to not feel bad that you can't do it, you won't breed jealousy in that sense. There is no shaming in Walden Two, that's it. There is no shaming. They don't make you feel bad if you can't do something, they simply find something you can do. It's also interesting that they don't congratulate you for doing it well. Do we need to live in a society filled with praise? Without shame, there is no praise, and vice versa I suppose.

I do have a few issues. First, and note this is a bias of being raised in this society, maybe if I grew up in Walden Two I wouldn't think this, but I find value in suffering. Nietzsche alludes to climbing a mountain; if you ride a gondola to the top, will you appreciate the crest as much if you had hiked there? Nietzsche says no, and I agree. I think the struggle makes the finish that much more rewarding. Is it the most efficient way, no. But am I here, on this Earth to be efficient? Or am I here to live, and experience life to its' fullest?

My other balk comes at the idea that they don't study general humanities, namely history. Nor do they read books they find disinteresting. Maybe this comes back to the point of suffering, but I have found some very rewarding books that I have suffered through. Walden, for example, has a terrible first chapter, and the writing is a bit esoteric and dated, but by the time you get to the conclusion, and you have worked your way through it, the end is so much more valuable. And I have read dozens of books that were mere fluff pieces, offering no culmination of deep thoughts. So I feel that Skinner missed the ball here. I also find it dangerous to not have a public educated in history. I feel like this is how you wind up with the wool pulled over your eyes. How can you tell if you are living in a dictatorship, or an oligopoly if you have no idea what those things are? Skinner would retort, it doesn't matter what system you live in as long as the people are happy, healthy, and productive. But I feel like it matters. I want to know what is going on, I want to be able to make up my own mind whether I am happy or not. Sure, if you engineer my emotions in a way that is happy to have no deep thoughts, will I be alive, healthy, and productive? Yes, but will I truly be living?

I'm realizing that these are questions that I am grappling with currently. These are thoughts that coming to the surface in an age of technology, where behavioral engineering is taking place, and experiments are being performed on us all the time. See the recent Radiolab on The Trust Engineers. See the experiments that are being done on Google, Facebook, other various apps, all the time. Skinners wet dream is coming true. But I fear they are coming true not in the Utopian fashion he imagined. The fears of Castle, about despotism, are more likely with companies learning clever new ways to sell us crap, to keep our minds occupied with frivolous thoughts, skimming the surface on the depth of understanding we are capable of, and limiting the development of our emotional being. In the end I hope I am wrong.

But, back to Walden Two. It truly is a controversial novel (which I am curious how many people have read or heard of in the 21st century), and brings up important topics to discuss, even now almost 60 years after publication.