The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

134 THE FREEMAN MarchBrotherhood of the New Life gavemajor attention to the sisterhood,in the belief that:"Soul-life and sex-life are at one,In the Divine their pulses run."Robert Owen and Charles FourierFounders of other perfectionistsettlements were more sincere anda bit less silly. Robert Owen, asuccessful English textile manufacturer,believed community ofproperty essential to the goodlife, and was sure that the individualis totally shaped by hisenvironment. In 1825 he boughtup the extensive holdings of areligious community that wasmoving from Harmony, Indiana.The 900 who flocked in at hisopen invitation seemed to Owen'sson a "heterogeneous collection ofradicals, enthusiastic devotees toprinciple, honest latitudinariansand lazy theorists, with a sprinklingof unprincipled sharpersthrown in." Owen's communalsystem gave full vent to theirshabby ways. They couldn't runanything properly-flour mill, sawmill, tannery or smithy-and theironly solution to problems of productionwas to write another constitutionor make another speech.The industrious soon tired·of supportingthe idle. From the Nashoba,Tennessee Owenite settlement,leader Frances Wright informedOwen that "cooperationhas nigh killed us all," and departed.Within two years everyOwenite venture, fourteen in all,disintegrated.Disciples of the unsmilingFrenchman Charles Fourier setup no less than twenty-sevenAmerican experiments. Fourierbased his utopian ideal less onman's malleability than on hisfundamental goodness. The twelvepassions, which he carefully listedand classified, would act in perfectharmony with each other and withsociety as a whole if given achance. Let people gather into"phalanxes" of some 2,000 members,housed communally in onehuge "phalanstery" lying in aspread of 1,600 acres owned incommon. Let each choose the workhe wished to do. Pay the highestwage for disagreeable butnecessarylabor, less for the' more: attractive,and least for work thatwas downright pleasurable. Bringall goods produced to a singlewarehouse, where they could bepurchased with work-tickets. InFourier's ample vision all mankindwould finally be gathered intothree million phalanxes, coordinatedby an Omniarch in Constantinople.Fourier-inspired communesquickly died of dissension, ineptitude,and sheer tomfoolery. Anattempt to use some Fourier principlesdealt the final blow to the