Walden Zwei

Walden Two (1948) is a novel by B.F. Skinner which described a fictional utopia in which a thousand people have obtained a good life modeled after Thoreau's experiment in living near Walden pond. In it B.F.Skinner proposed the application of psychological principles to solving human problems. In the novel he refers to this approach as 'the science of human behavior'

The book describes a visit by a small party of guests to nearly ten-year old community. As the visitors tour the community minor arguments ensue. Ultimately, some of the party finds the community appealing while some do not. Various aspects of the community design are revealed through a combination of dialogue and action.

Some of the elements of this novel which might seem controversial are that it is a community of collective ownership, a form of socialism. It encourages members to be married at a young age and have children as part of its growth policy. Children are raised collectively and family ties are minimized. Children are given a rigorous ethical training in self-control to allow them to be productive and happy. The community has a non-democrative government composed of Planners and Managers who are not elected, and who cannot be unelected. There are other story elements as well that might be seen as controversial Vorlage:Fact

Story

Walden Two is largely a narrative text that posits three characters in a walking tour of Walden Two. These three characters are Frazier, Burris and Castle. Frazier is the founder of the community and tour guide and explains the community in detail. Burris and Castle are visiting professors from a local college. Burris and Castle are professors of Psychology and Philosophy respectively. As they discuss Walden Two we, the reader, get a description of the community and its design which is supplemented by descriptions of the community members in action. Members of the community are described doing things like swimming, playing chess, playing in a string quartet, putting on a choral production of Bach's B-Minor Mass, "simply relaxing" and doing nothing.

Walden Two is offered as a lifestyle that, by design, doesn't foster competition, social strife and opposes war 'by creating a lifestyle that doesn't need it'. Here we have many echoes of the founding text, Walden. Like Thoreau's Walden, Walden Two is offered as a sort of civil disobedience. The evils of society are to be opposed by living a good, moral life.

Additionally, minimal consumption, rich social relationships, personal happiness, satisfying work and leisure are encouraged. A very strong and overt egalitarianism is mentioned in a variety of areas including the division of work, gender relations, and in the political structure.

Characters

There are three main characters in the story, Burris, Frazier and Castle. Jamnick, Rogers, Barbara Macklin and Mary Grove are other characters in the story.

Burris

Burris is a professor of psychology at a local university. He went to graduate school with Frazier and remembers him as "a queer duck". Burris is mildly coerced into going to visit Walden Two by Jamnick and Rogers, who mention having heard about Walden Two in a magazine article which referenced Thoreau and starting a community. Burris represents Skinner himself; the book is written from his first-person perspective, while the name "Burris" is a reference to Skinner's little-used first name, "Burrhus."

Frazier

Frazier went to graduate school with Burris but appears to have never taught. Instead he went and started a utopian community, Walden Two. Frazier, with Simmons, planned the community details including the self-control system, the Walden Code, the Walden Constitution, the Platform and general cultural design. Frazier is portrayed in the novel as fairly uncharismatic. He has a messy room, he gets angry, he mentions having a problem with jealousy, he appears to enjoy arguing, and admits that "he is not a product of Walden Two".

Castle

Castle is a professor of philosophy at the same local university as Burris. He says he is interested in visiting because he once taught a course in the literary utopias. Castle, too, is presented as being somewhat uncharismatic, with a slight weight problem, an inclination to argue with Frazier, and so on. Skinner derived the name of this character from Alburey Castell, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota where Skinner taught psychology (1936-1945).

Other Characters

Rogers and Jamnick are two veterans from World War II who are returning to civilian life. Having had time to think about their pre-war plans they decide they want to do something different. They decide to seek out Frazier and the community they heard about through Burris. Barbara Macklin and Mary Grove are their fiance and girlfriend respectively. There are many other minor characters who appear briefly and say little or nothing.

Child Rearing

Children are to be raised communally and are taught self-control techniques to handle jealousy, impatience and promote positive approachs to problems.

Adult members, we are told, are also taught these techniques, which are supplemented with a community psychologist. Also there is the use of things like pamphlets which are refreshers in these techniques. In the novel Frazier mentions that he used such a pamphlet to help him with jealousy.

Child rearing professionals, sometimes called Metas in the real world but not in Skinner's novel, manage the children providing day care, education and supervision.

Children are encouraged to call their parents by name ("Fred") rather than title ("Father") to promote a sort of 'generalized' parenting pattern which downplays individual parent-child relationships. Parents are encouraged to provide toys and affection for their own child and a few others at the same time to avoid singling their own child out. This also has the benefit, in the novel, of allowing for children with absent parents to enjoy parental affection from many adults.

Marriage

Unlike many real-world communities,in the novel marriage is encouraged. However, in Skinner's utopia, young men and women are encouraged to become married and have children as soon as possible. This is offered partially as a means to prevent the "problem of youth sexuality" by legitimizing it in marriage. It also has collective benefits in enhancing the size of the community by a high birth rate.

In Walden Two marriages are preceded by a long engagement, part of which consists of a screening by community counselors who examine the partners for compatibility in terms of age, background, education and so on.

Although not apparently implemented, a eugenics program is mentioned wherein couples could marry at will but be paired with healthy partners for optimal genetic qualities.

The Planner-Manager System

The community is said to have run on a system that might be described as a Planner-Manager system. The Planners are three men and three women who have ten year terms. Planners obtain no special benefits for their role and no exemptions from work. All members, Planners included, must work at least one hour of physical labor a day for egalitarian and health reasons. All work is considered valuable. Planners have a sort of executive function in the community, they design and modify the principles which govern the community, have a sort of judicial function, and select Managers among other tasks.

Managers are the day to day government of the community whose jobs are largely to implement the community principles, requisition and manage labor, and ensure that the community keeps functioning. Neither Managers nor Planners are democratically elected. Managers are selected, we are told, based on skill and merit, and can only influence the Planners by selecting a range of candidates among whom the Planners select. Democracy, as a governing principle, in either its direct or representative form, is explicitly rejected in the novel for too many reasons to elaborate here.

The Walden Code, or Code, is the actual day to day elaborations of how life is to be lived, which includes minimum community standards for conduct, self-management and other details. The Code was designed by the Planners, and is agreed to by the members as a condition for membership.

Self-control is mentioned as a central principle in the government of the community, and is mentioned in some detail. The Walden Community has no police or prisons and avoids as much punishment in the control of its members as possible.

Three documents seem to unite the organizational structure of the community: a Platform, a constitution, and the Walden Code. The Platform, which is a general articulation of the founding principles, includes things like the need to experiment with our own lives and the need to seek non-political solutions to the problems of human living. The Constitution is an articulation of the Planner-Manager system, and the Code is the detailed day-to-day instructions for self-management.

A Golden Age

The goal of the community is the creation of a Golden Age of civilization comprising a revival of classical arts, music and literature. The preconditions for a Golden Age are suggested as being the components of life in Walden Two: an appreciative audience, an undemanding work life, and reasonable training in the arts: in short appreciation, leisure and education.

Skinner wrote,

It is now widely recognized that great changes must be made in the American way of life [...] The choice is clear: either we do nothing and allow a miserable and probably catastrophic future to overtake us, or we use our knowledge about human behavior to create a social environment in which he shall live productive and creative lives and do so without jeopardizing the chances that those who follow us will be able to do the same. Something like a Walden Two would not be a bad start.

From Rats to Humans

Skinner's 1938 book, The Behavior of Organisms ended with 'let him extrapolate who will' and did not touch upon the extension of operant principles to human affairs. In a dramatic about face, Skinner offered up this conceptualization of a pilot experiment in cultural engineering in his fictionalized utopia. One source indicated that the book was written as a sort of response to a challenge to the problem of returning GIs from the war. Two such GIs figure prominently in the story.

Initially rejected, Skinner got a publisher to agree to its publication on the condition that he write a textbook for them as well. This agreement produced the textbook Science and Human Behavior which relates to some of the more technical aspects of the novel such as Self Control. Self Control occupies all of chapter XV in Science and Human Behavior and is mentioned extensively in Walden Two.

Thoreau's Walden

Walden Two's title is a reference to Henry David Thoreau's book Walden. In the novel, the Walden Community is mentioned as having the benefits of living in a place like Thoreau's Walden, but "with company". It is, as the book says, 'walden for two' - meaning a community and not a place of solitude. Originally, Skinner indicated that he wanted to title it The Sun is but a Morning Star but the publishers suggested the current title as an alternative.

News From Nowhere, 1984

Skinner published a follow up to Walden Two in an essay titled News From Nowhere, 1984. It details the discovery of Eric Blair in the community who meets Burris. They seek out Frazier "the leader" and have discussions which are mentioned in the essay. Skinner mentions that Walden Two has "no institutionaled system of government, religion, or economics" and relates this to the goal of 19th century anarchism. Skinner essentially posits Walden Two as a practical non-violent "anarchist" system.

Misc

Sir Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis was described as the source of the inspiration for his book. Many authors are mentioned in Walden Two including Confucius, H.G.Wells, Sir Francis Bacon, Thorstein Veblen, and many more.

Skinner claimed to have written Walden Two in two weeks "in a white heat".

Real World Efforts

Many efforts to create a Walden Two in real life are detailed in Hilke Kuhlmann's Living Walden Two and in Bjork's biography B.F.Skinner

Some of them include:

• 1955 In New Haven, Connecticut a group lead by Arthur Gladstone tries to start a community.
• 1966 Waldenwoods conference is held in Hartland, Michigan, comprising 83 adults and 4 children, coordinated through the Breiland list (a list of interested people who wrote to Skinner and were referred to Jim Breiland).
• 1966 Matt Israel forms the Association for Social Design(ASD), to promote a Walden Two, which soon finds chapters in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and Washington, D.C..
• 1967 Israel's ASD forms the Morningside House in Arlington, Massachusetts.
• 1967 Twin Oaks Community (web site) is started in Lousia, Virginia.
• 1969 Keith Miller in Lawrence, Kansas founds a 'Walden house' student collective that becomes The Sunflower House 11.
• 1971 Roger Ulrich starts Lake Village in Michigan originally conceptualized as a 'scientific behaviorist experiment'.
• 1971 Los Horcones (web site), is started in Hermosilla, Mexico.
• 1972 Sunflower House 11 is (re)born in Lawrence, Kansas from the previous experiment.

Twin Oaks is detailed in Kat Kinkade's book, Twin Oaks: A Walden Two Experiment. Originally started as a Walden Two community, it has since rejected its Walden Two position, however it still uses its modified Planner-Manager system as well as a system of labor credits based on the book.

Los Horcones is described as being 'Walden Two' inspired by their website, but appears to have rejected the Planner-Manager system in favor of what it describes as 'Personocracy' . It is strongly Radical behaviorist though, which it claims as the basis for the title a Walden Two community.

Cultural Engineering

Skinner wrote about cultural engineering in many other books, suggesting that Walden Two was an early instance of this general idea. In Science and Human Behavior a chapter is entitled Designing a Culture and expands on this position as well as in other documents.

Criticisms

Rozycki, in his Critical Review, mentions a few possible criticisms of Walden Two in particular and Skinner in general. The latter attacks are perhaps not specifically relevant here, but in terms of the former, he mentions the rather conventional role of women in Walden Two which, in contemporary terms, could be seen as sexist among other criticisms.

Hilke Kuhlmann's Living Walden Two possesses many subtle and not-so-sublte criticisms of the original Walden Two which are related to the actual efforts that arose from the novel. One criticism is that many of the founders of real-life Walden Twos identified with, or wanted to emulate, Frazier, the uncharismatic founder of the community.

See also

• Beyond Freedom and Dignity also Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis
• Thomas C. Schelling (Intimate Struggle for Self-Command, et. al.)