I had recently let my subscription lapse so I didn't see this until now, but for those of you who regularly read the magazine you'll know that they do a profile on a different zip code area within the US each month. For August they did 65760 Tecumseh, Missouri, in an article titled: Not Quite Utopia. The article is about East Wind Community. It's an egalitarian, socialist community of 75 members set in the Ozark Mountain region of southern Missouri.
As some of you may know from previous posts I've made, I lived at East Wind Community for a year in the mid 1980s, and I regret to say that this was the worst article I have ever had the misfortune of reading within a National Geographic magazine. It concentrates almost entirely on sensationalist, or negative incidents and does very little to give you an idea of what East Wind is all about. One who had no other knowledge about the place would be left wondering why anyone would choose to live there at all. The story's deficiencies are as follows:
1. The article opens with a 2 page spread with a large photo of a member identified as "Rachael" who is gardening in the nude. She is quoted as saying, "It was a pretty day, and I was with my new lover. Why not?" One is immediately given the impression that this is some sort of immoral, partner swapping, semi-nudist colony.
2. The story begins by observing that East Wind meetings typically only draw 10 people, but 50 have turned out to discuss a member named "Yarrow" who has been getting drunk, smashing up communtiy vehicles, and ticking people off. One member is quoted as saying, "people always show up for a lynching." Isn't that a lovely was to start you off in a negative frame of mind?
3. The article is quick to note the "irony" that the socialist commune is funded by their capitalist nut butter enterprise. They then quote a member named "Deborah" who opines, "We thought we were going to change the world", and later goes on to say, "we failed." They sprinkle in some claptrap about failed socialist revolutions, Mao Zedong, and how things haven't turned out the way they thought. I couldn't help but wonder if they consulted StarValleyWy on the writing of this article. Or if maybe he wrote it himself under a pen name.
4. And finally, after talking about the type of labor they do, "Woody" says, "The problem is getting people to care about what we're doing." The story continues by saying, "Several members feel traped. Despite years of work for the community, many feel they don't have enough money or equity to begin a life elsewhere. Beer, wine, and cigarettes provide a diversion for some." "Lynn" says, "We talk a lot about ideals, but the next morning no one can remember what we said."
This article is nothing more than a hatchet job. I know probably none of you care all that much about this issue, but I lived there for a year. I have many fond memories of the place and it angers me to see their reputation and ideals trashed in such a fashion. One is given the impression that they're nothing but a disorganized rabble of drunken, immoral idlers who jabber on about failed socialist ideals like children without having the faintest clue about how the world really works. You might wonder how they manage to survive a week, let alone the 32 years the community has been around. The only plus side to the article is that I recognize several of the people in the accompanying photos, who I haven't seen since I left. Despite the story's gross deficiencies it has sent me strolling back down memory lane.
Has anyone else seen this article?
Originally posted by rwingettI'll keep an eye out. I assume its august 2005?
I had recently let my subscription lapse so I didn't see this until now, but for those of you who regularly read the magazine you'll know that they do a profile on a different zip code area within the US each month. For August they did 65760 Tecumseh, Missouri, in an article titled: Not Quite Utopia. The article is about East Wind Community. It's an egal ...[text shortened]... ficiencies it has sent me strolling back down memory lane.
Has anyone else seen this article?
It sounds more like a kibbutz. I have friends in Israel (we lived
there for three years in the 90's) who have been Kibbutzim for
thirty years. The article clearly sounds like a hatchet job all right.
Like making a product for sale on a socialist based community
is somehow some kind of crime. All the Kibbutzes in Israel have
some product for sale, there is even a pig kibbutz!
I guess they think a commune of say 100 people are supposed
to be able to live on, say, a 200 acre farm and live there with no
contact with the outer world. What a crock! I had a girlfriend who
had a part interest in a kind of commune on Vancouver Island,
they all had outside jobs and it was more of a community based
housing plan. Nobody bitched about that, so what gives?
I guess any group trying the dreaded Commune experience are
automatically against the US government and are obviously
secretly making weapons and stockpile food and water in underground
caverns waiting for the day the US dissapears.
Originally posted by rwingettAnd any community doesn't have problems? Communities are made up of people, with all their foibles. Did the writers expect to find bodiless angels floating around in perfect bliss? Would they hold a kibbutz or an Amish community or anybody else to the same utopian standards?
I had recently let my subscription lapse so I didn't see this until now, but for those of you who regularly read the magazine you'll know that they do a profile on a different zip code area within the US each month. For August they did 65760 Tecumseh, Missouri, in an article titled: Not Quite Utopia. The article is about East Wind Community. It's an egal ...[text shortened]... ficiencies it has sent me strolling back down memory lane.
Has anyone else seen this article?
Just because a community is formed around certain ideals, doesn't mean those ideals are ever perfectly realized; that there is no continual work to be done, shortcomings to be examined, problems to be adjudicated, etc.
I haven't seen the article (we let our subscription lapse too) but I would've expected better from NG.
Originally posted by sonhouseYes, it was August 2005.
I'll keep an eye out. I assume its august 2005?
It sounds more like a kibbutz. I have friends in Israel (we lived
there for three years in the 90's) who have been Kibbutzim for
thirty years. The article clearly sounds like a hatchet job all right.
Like making a product for sale on a socialist based community
is somehow some kind of crime. All the Kib ...[text shortened]... pons and stockpile food and water in underground
caverns waiting for the day the US dissapears.
East Wind is similar to a kibbutz. We had a few former kibbutzniks living there at one time.
You can check out their website at www.eastwind.org to get some objective information about the community if you want.
Yes, Vistesd, I had grown accustomed to better things from National Geographic as well. Usually they (and other reputable magazines) will follow a similar format for such things. They'll usually start out with the proponants of X giving their side of the story and telling you why they think X is so wonderful. Then they'll switch over to opponents of X, or they'll voice their own misgivings about X and call into question the validity of the proponents claims. Such articles usually end with the proponents getting the last word, where they try to disspell the objections to X. You end up with a balanced and objective article. The NG story, by contrast, was sensationalistic and excessively negative right from the start. I'll have to look at the September issue and see if any letters to the editor were forthcoming from the East Wind members. I'm tempted to write one myself.
Originally posted by rwingettA lot can change in 20 years...in 1985, North Carolina had about 3 illegal aliens living there; now there about 500,000....East Wind probably has a Republican Mayor who addresses city council in an pink thong, no? They sound like anarchist and lazy socialists to me, though I could be wrong......
I had recently let my subscription lapse so I didn't see this until now, but for those of you who regularly read the magazine you'll know that they do a profile on a different zip code area within the US each month. For August they did 65760 Tecumseh, Missouri, in an article titled: Not Quite Utopia. The article is about East Wind Community. It's an egal ...[text shortened]... ficiencies it has sent me strolling back down memory lane.
Has anyone else seen this article?
Originally posted by chancremechanicThere is no mayor or city council. All decisions are made collectively by the entire community.
A lot can change in 20 years...in 1985, North Carolina had about 3 illegal aliens living there; now there about 500,000....East Wind probably has a Republican Mayor who addresses city council in an pink thong, no? They sound like anarchist and lazy socialists to me, though I could be wrong......
They are egalitarian socialists, which means for all intents and purposes they are anarchists.
Are they lazy? No more so than people anywhere else.
Originally posted by kirksey957I thought about that. After all, when I was there they had been a community for about 13 years, and it's been about 19 years since I left. But when I scrutinize the article not much seems to have changed since I was there. They've maintained a stable membership of about 75 people, so things must not have devolved into total chaos. Many of the same people that I knew, like Otto, Barry, and Linda are still there, and I doubt they've changed significantly since then. They still describe themselves as an "intentional community that strives to be egalitarian, noncompetitive, nonviolent, and an ally to our bioregion and planet", so no fascist coup has taken place in the interem. They still derive much of their income from their nutbutter business (although the story doesn't mention the hammock making business, which is primarily what I did when I was there). In fact, the only tangible difference that I can glean from the story is that the main building, known as Rockbottom, now has a pool table, and that apparently some people have grown fond of gardening in the nude.
Rob, I'm wondering if it would still meet your expectations if you went back. A lot can happen in 20 years.
What I think happened is that this Alan Mairson (the assistant editor who wrote the story) abused the confidence of the people he talked to. Being candid and forthright people, I think they opened themselves up to him about all their successes and perceived failures over the years and Mr. Mairson chose to dwell almost exclusively on the failures. There are many quotes throughout the story, and not a single one of them could be described as being positive. Some are neutral, but the vast majority are negative in nature. I don't believe that such a mood of despondancy and failure has permeated the community in that time. I think it's shoddy journalism, plain and simple.
A much more sympathetic treatment of the intentional community movement in the mainsteam media was found in the FX Network series, 30 Days, which was directed and hosted by Morgan Spurlock, the man who created the Academy Award nominated documentary, Super Size Me.
The premise of the show was that they would take either Morgan himself, or some other "mainstream American" and put them into an unfamiliar social setting and see how they fared for the next 30 days. One show took Morgan and his girlfriend and saw how they fared by working only minimum wage jobs for 30 days. Another show took a Christian American and had him live with a Muslim family for 30 days.
Possibly the best show of the series was when they took two typical New York consumers and had them live on the Dancing Rabbit community for 30 days. The object was to demonstrate how wasteful a typical consumerist lifestyle is, and how with just a little awareness they can make more ecologically sound choices in their daily life.
Dancing Rabbit differs from East Wind in that it is an Ecovillage and not an egalitarian socialist community. Dancing Rabbit is a member of the FIC (Federation of Intentional Communities) but not a member of the FEC (Federation of Egalitarian Communities). But even so, they share much in common with each in that they embrace a counter culture lifestyle and are against rampant consumerism. The treatment of the subject by the show was obviously skewed in favor of the community, but I thought it was much more objective nonetheless and certianly much more informative.
Did anyone see that show? Or any of the 30 Days episodes?