Posted on 07/30/2009 12:35:31 PM PDT by Ebenezer
What do the following places have in common: Trumbull Phalanx in Ohio, Modern Times in New York, Brook Farm in Massachusetts, New Harmony in Indiana, United Order in Utah, Amana Colonies in Iowa, Oneida Community in New York, a kibbutz in Israel, and the Pilgrim’s Plymouth Plantation?
Each was an attempt to establish a form of heaven on earth, or put another way, to establish through socialism a utopian community by (1) abolishing private property and (2) eradicating self-interested acquisitiveness.
There are basically three forms of socialism: utopian (Robert Owen, Saint-Simon, and Francois Fourier), revolutionary (Marxism-Leninism), and fascism (Fabian, Social Democracy). Continuing attempts such as those listed above to establish some form of utopian socialism reinforce the observation of Alfred North Whitehead—“the European philosophical tradition is . . . a series of footnotes to Plato.”
Whitehead was himself an influential twentieth century philosopher and mathematician, who saw that Europe and America were enamored with Plato’s “general ideas” scattered throughout his various writings, none more so than the communistic ideas in his Republic.
In fact, the pilgrims came to these shores establishing Plato’s communistic utopia. Plymouth Plantation’s William Bradford mentions him by name, referring to “that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God.” Bradford learned by experience, however, that God is wiser than Plato.
By experience, it seems as if the United States failed to learn her lesson from our early Fathers, as we find ourselves once again toying with Plato!
Eric Etheredge of the New York Times refers to President Barack Obama as a “social democrat.” Gene Edward Veith of World magazine (May 9, 2009, p. 56) notes that “social democrat” is code for socialist, using the Merriam-Webster online dictionary to define social democracy as “a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means.”
Veith develops the point further by using the Encyclopedia Britannica to show that social democracy is “a political ideology that advocates a peaceful, evolutionary transition of society from capitalism to socialism using established political processes. Based on 19th-century socialism and the tenets of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, social democracy shares common ideological roots with communism.”
Thus we see that the United States of America is being led into another socialistic experiment to create anew a heaven on earth by its President, his Democratic administration, and the House of Representatives (flush with four socialistic organizations, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus).
Utopian socialism did not work for the pilgrims, who were primarily Christian in orientation, and neither Social Democracy nor the John Maynard Keynes evolutionary variety of socialism will work today for men and women of a vastly different orientation.
They forgot ‘Soul City’ in North Carolina.
Miracle Valley, AZ - just outside of Ft Hauchucha, AZ . http://www.miraclevalley.net/gpage.html (current iteration) Original history is now seen as 'roadside attraction (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11286)
A very well done of the history of the 'religious' goings on is found here -
http://www.palominas.com/history02.htm
We have friends of the family that live in Hereford, visited the area since I was a child. Lots of strange stuff along the border.
have fun
The whole “Intentional Communities” (the new term for communes) in the U.S. has proven again and again that the socialist model doesn’t work. They inevitably devolve into cults or disband out of chaos and corruption. There are still hundreds of them around promising the impossible, though.
“By experience, it seems as if the United States failed to learn her lesson from our early Fathers, as we find ourselves once again toying with Plato! “
Yikes! Talk about FAIL. The US wasn’t established when the Pilgrims landed. The US was established as a REPUBLIC by the true founding fathers of the nation - a nation of laws, not socialism. The Pilgrims didn’t establish a nation.
“By experience, it seems as if the United States failed to learn her lesson from our early Fathers, as we find ourselves once again toying with Plato! “
Yikes! Talk about FAIL. The US wasn’t established when the Pilgrims landed. The US was established as a REPUBLIC by the true founding fathers of the nation - a nation of laws, not socialism. The Pilgrims didn’t establish a nation.
Fabianism and social democracy don't have much in common with fascism, other than all being forms of socialism.
Fabianism and social democracy don't have much in common with fascism, other than all being forms of socialism.
Utopianism is a never ending goal that get everyone nowhere.
I grew up a couple of blocks from what was Brook Farm. By that time, part of it was an orphanage, and the rest was a cemetery. I attended a nearby elementary school named for one of the founders of Brook Farm, so it wasn't some distant historical blip for me.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a member, and based the novel "The Blithedale Romance" on some of his experiences.
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