The Oneida Community
Dec. 6th, 2008 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorThe Oneida Community started out with some incredibly ambitious aims. Did they fail or succeed? I think by their original standards they failed. But in a lot of other measures, they succeeded.
The Community, which I'll heretofore refer to as OC, was started based on Bible Communism. Their particular belief system was Perfectionism as put forth by their longtime leader John Humphrey Noyes.
Initially, the started off with the idea that they would live off the land and make their way as farmers. A lot of communes have started with this
idea and most have existed as a convenient container into which to pour money before expiring after period. The OC bled money fairly
profusely in the early going. After about four years they gave up on the idea of making a living off the land and started looking for industries.
They developed industries, some of which were failures, some of which were successful. Overall, the transition succeeded. They went from hemorrhaging money, to growing, to reasonably wealthy. Did they succeed in their goal? No. But they were successful by greater society's measure of monetary success.
In the early going, the OC proclaimed that they would not participate in the slavery of the employer/employee relationship, in either capacity.
Yet, later, when they were profitably engaged in several businesses, they begin to hire workers; and not just a few, but more than 50% of their labor
in several industries. Now, they probably treated their workers better than average, but there was a distinct backsliding of their ideal. As more
outside workers were hired, more of the community members became managers and overseers.
The original credo was to welcome all and spread the word. They continued to spread the word through their weekly paper, but it didn't take long for
the population of OC to top out. Before reading this book I hadn't realized that they were turning people away. Toward the end, after they had become moderately wealthy, they turned everyone away from membership.
What made the OC disintegrate? Was it that the second generation lacked the faith of the first? I don't think so. Even before Noyes' departure,
the original focus of the community had slowly evolved away bit by bit. At some point, the community lost the focus that would have allowed it to
endure. The community enjoyed life too much to be held together to the last dying member, a la the Shakers. The cracks show in the shifts in belief,
reflected in action.
The Oneida Community did accomplish some pretty amazing things. The amount of construction in the early years alone was impressive. For a community of a little over 200 at best to publish and distribute a weekly paper among all the other work of living is an accomplishment on its own. The standard set for educating their children and their adult population was way ahead of its time. They were at least moderately ahead of the curve in treatment of employees.
Socially, I think they proved a communist system can work, at least on a small scale. They never succeeded in truly cloning the system and I think
they realized they couldn't enlarge Oneida. But their radical departure from social norms was long term stable. That might not have been their
original intention, but I do think it is their greatest legacy. They managed to keep a community together for a quarter century with new ways of
dealing with sexual relations, raising children, division of labor, and division (or lack of) property. How many rules can you break and still
keep it together? Oneida certainly pushed the limits.
The Community, which I'll heretofore refer to as OC, was started based on Bible Communism. Their particular belief system was Perfectionism as put forth by their longtime leader John Humphrey Noyes.
Initially, the started off with the idea that they would live off the land and make their way as farmers. A lot of communes have started with this
idea and most have existed as a convenient container into which to pour money before expiring after period. The OC bled money fairly
profusely in the early going. After about four years they gave up on the idea of making a living off the land and started looking for industries.
They developed industries, some of which were failures, some of which were successful. Overall, the transition succeeded. They went from hemorrhaging money, to growing, to reasonably wealthy. Did they succeed in their goal? No. But they were successful by greater society's measure of monetary success.
In the early going, the OC proclaimed that they would not participate in the slavery of the employer/employee relationship, in either capacity.
Yet, later, when they were profitably engaged in several businesses, they begin to hire workers; and not just a few, but more than 50% of their labor
in several industries. Now, they probably treated their workers better than average, but there was a distinct backsliding of their ideal. As more
outside workers were hired, more of the community members became managers and overseers.
The original credo was to welcome all and spread the word. They continued to spread the word through their weekly paper, but it didn't take long for
the population of OC to top out. Before reading this book I hadn't realized that they were turning people away. Toward the end, after they had become moderately wealthy, they turned everyone away from membership.
What made the OC disintegrate? Was it that the second generation lacked the faith of the first? I don't think so. Even before Noyes' departure,
the original focus of the community had slowly evolved away bit by bit. At some point, the community lost the focus that would have allowed it to
endure. The community enjoyed life too much to be held together to the last dying member, a la the Shakers. The cracks show in the shifts in belief,
reflected in action.
The Oneida Community did accomplish some pretty amazing things. The amount of construction in the early years alone was impressive. For a community of a little over 200 at best to publish and distribute a weekly paper among all the other work of living is an accomplishment on its own. The standard set for educating their children and their adult population was way ahead of its time. They were at least moderately ahead of the curve in treatment of employees.
Socially, I think they proved a communist system can work, at least on a small scale. They never succeeded in truly cloning the system and I think
they realized they couldn't enlarge Oneida. But their radical departure from social norms was long term stable. That might not have been their
original intention, but I do think it is their greatest legacy. They managed to keep a community together for a quarter century with new ways of
dealing with sexual relations, raising children, division of labor, and division (or lack of) property. How many rules can you break and still
keep it together? Oneida certainly pushed the limits.
