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The Macedonia Cooperative Community (1937–58) and the Quest for a Communal Center
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
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Disappointed by the demise of the Macedonia Cooperative Community, in which he had become a member, Staughton Lynd wrote in 1958: “Let us hope that some contemporary group will demonstrate by a living example that disintegration and authoritarianism are not our only alternatives.” Indeed, these have been the twin perils in the experience of many American intentional communities throughout the years, particularly those that have sought a high degree of integration as an antidote to what their members perceive to be the inequality and competitiveness of conventional society. Because such ideals cut across the cultural grain, the casualty rate is high. But the primary ingredient in the survival of some may be the very factor responsible for the mortality of others: the almost inevitable quest for a common center, characterized by insistence upon deeper levels of commitment, an increasing degree of homogeneity, and a greater sense of common purpose. Recent works by sociologists like Rosabeth Moss Kanter and historians like Laurence Vesey support this conclusion, as does the judgment of many earlier observers. The quest for such a communal center lay at the heart of the Macedonian experience.
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References
NOTES
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30. “Report—1948,” pp. 9–10. Art Wiser wrote in 1949 that the community was committed to the principles that “income should be based on need” and that there should be “relative equality in the satisfaction of needs.” “Exploring Responsibility,” Fellowship, 15 (09 1949), 5.Google Scholar
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50. Letters from Ruth and Wendell Kramer (of Tuolumne Co-operative Farm) and Griscom Morgan, among others, expressed these views in the Fellowship of Intentional Communities Newsletter, 10 1, 1958, pp. 8–11.Google Scholar
51. Letter from Harold Winchester in ibid., p. 2.
52. Bryce Babcock, formerly of Tuolumne and Hood River communities, in FIC (1958), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar
53. Lynd, Staughton, “Can Men Live as Brothers?” p. 14.Google Scholar
54. Griscom Morgan, an active participant in the FIC during this period and head of Community Services, Inc., for many years, felt that the Macedonia experience reinforced his view that integral community produced extreme personal stress, as well as pressure toward unity and uniformity. Interview by the author, Yellow Springs, Ohio, November 8, 1975.
55. Zablocki, Benjamin in The Joyful CommunityGoogle Scholar describes this period as one of “liberalization and expansion” for the Bruderhof, soon followed by a time of consolidation and tightening up (pp. 93–110).
56. It was not possible for me to ascertain the way in which Bruderhof members who formerly participated in the Macedonia Cooperative Community now view the Macedonia experience. One member, speaking for several I had hoped to interview, wrote me on June 2, 1975: “On joining we have taken vows to put the past under forgiveness and therefore it would be very difficult for us to talk or write about our past, either positively or negatively. Our commitment is to a life in the present and future.”
57. Arnold, Eberhard, “Why We Live in Community” (1927; rpt. Rifton, N.Y.: Plough Publishing House, 1967), p. 15.Google Scholar