A utopian society was imagined and implemented in the early 1840s in the woodland area of Massachusetts. This was the Brook Farm utopian experiment. This utopian farm was founded by George Ripley and his wife, Sophia Ripley in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, now present-day Boston. Brook Farm was set to be a place of idealism and cooperative communal living. The farm would fail after a series of misfortunes only five short years after its beginning in 1846. The constitution of Brook Farm showed this failure by being unable to follow through on the foundations of the society for the community. Brook Farm was a community based group experiment that hoped to reform the individual’s human nature, or their general inner characteristics, feelings,
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It was the expectation that each individual would work and grow under a free development. This freedom for development was grounded in part with a financial basis. After all the expenses of the community had been paid each member of the community would be paid equally for each day of labor that was performed. This gives everyone an equal pay for and equal amount of days worked. In the Brook Farm Constitution, “The nett profits of the Association, after the payment of all expense, shall be divided into a number of shares corresponding to the number of day’s labor; and every member shall be entitled to one share for every day’s labor performed by him” (Ripley 241). This would eliminate the divergence of wage labor. Therefore, every member of the society would be paid equally for a day’s labor. But is this sustainable? Is it conceivable to pay everyone the same wage even if one person consistently gets seven cords of wood cut a day while another gets thirty-two cords cut in the same day, even if they work the same amount of days in the month? For this reason, the idea of an equal wage is infeasible. There will always be a discrepancy …show more content…
There was always a shortage of farm hands, but a surplus of teachers for the school. This went against the ideals of the founders that each member does his share of the manual labor, and the return of social distinctions (Brozek). It was the hope that people would want to help the community for the purpose of its success. The community however mainly worked in the labor that they most enjoyed. Though as the population at Brook Farm increased, this had to change. The success of the school and the rising population did little to help improve the community's funds. Multiple new buildings had to be built to accommodate more incoming members and almost all of the monetary efforts were borrowed. By the second year, Brook Farm was more than 15,000 dollars in debt. This caused the community to force people to work in a job because it functionally helped out the community. Though in debt, the benefit of the utopian community was that the individual freedom could be expressed, but this rule this caused the individual liberty of a person to be taken away. It promises individual freedom, security, and mutuality in the service of a community. The constitution wanted to “apply the principles of justice and love to our social organization” (Ripley 239). It wanted to allow all individuals to be able to follow any leisure and labor that they
It was the expectation that each individual would work and grow under a free development. This freedom for development was grounded in part with a financial basis. After all the expenses of the community had been paid each member of the community would be paid equally for each day of labor that was performed. This gives everyone an equal pay for and equal amount of days worked. In the Brook Farm Constitution, “The nett profits of the Association, after the payment of all expense, shall be divided into a number of shares corresponding to the number of day’s labor; and every member shall be entitled to one share for every day’s labor performed by him” (Ripley 241). This would eliminate the divergence of wage labor. Therefore, every member of the society would be paid equally for a day’s labor. But is this sustainable? Is it conceivable to pay everyone the same wage even if one person consistently gets seven cords of wood cut a day while another gets thirty-two cords cut in the same day, even if they work the same amount of days in the month? For this reason, the idea of an equal wage is infeasible. There will always be a discrepancy …show more content…
There was always a shortage of farm hands, but a surplus of teachers for the school. This went against the ideals of the founders that each member does his share of the manual labor, and the return of social distinctions (Brozek). It was the hope that people would want to help the community for the purpose of its success. The community however mainly worked in the labor that they most enjoyed. Though as the population at Brook Farm increased, this had to change. The success of the school and the rising population did little to help improve the community's funds. Multiple new buildings had to be built to accommodate more incoming members and almost all of the monetary efforts were borrowed. By the second year, Brook Farm was more than 15,000 dollars in debt. This caused the community to force people to work in a job because it functionally helped out the community. Though in debt, the benefit of the utopian community was that the individual freedom could be expressed, but this rule this caused the individual liberty of a person to be taken away. It promises individual freedom, security, and mutuality in the service of a community. The constitution wanted to “apply the principles of justice and love to our social organization” (Ripley 239). It wanted to allow all individuals to be able to follow any leisure and labor that they