Walden Two is a utopian novel written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, first published in 1948. At that time, it was considered as science fiction since science-based methods for altering human behavior were not widespread.Skinner, B.F. (1986). "Some Thoughts About the Future". Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 45(2), p. 229. "What the protagonist in Walden Two called a behavioral technology was at the time still science fiction, but it soon moved into the real world."Skinner, B.F. (1948). Walden Two. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. Revised 1976 edition, page vi. . "The 'behavioral engineering' I had so frequently mentioned in the book was, at the time, little more than science fiction". Such methods are now known as applied behavior analysis. In this book B. F. Skinner is essentially putting forward his ideas as applied to practical everyday and communal problems, for instance how to raise children, balance work and life, or help people have happy and meaningful lives.
The book is controversial because its characters speak of a rejection of free will,Aschner, Mary Jane McCue (1965). "The Planned Man: Skinner". The Educated Man: Studies in the History of Educational Thought. Paul Nash, Andreas M. Kazamias, and Henry J. Perkinson (Editors). John Wiley & Sons, pp. 389–421. "Public reaction to Walden Two, with its proposal for planned man, was initially slow. But eventually Skinner found himself at the storm center of a controversy that has scarcely abated to this day. Philosophers and psychologists charged into the latest jousting match in the perennial tourney between proponents of determinism and defenders of free will". p. 402. including a rejection of the proposition that human behavior is controlled by a non-corporeal entity, such as a spirit or a soul.Ivie, Stanley D. (2006). "Models and Metaphors". Journal of Philosophy and History of Education 56, pp. 82–92. Retrieved August 23, 2012. "Skinner's system does not provide for a God or a human soul". p. 88. It embraces the proposition that the behavior of organisms, including humans, is determined by environmental variables,Skinner, B.F. (1938). The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: B.F. Skinner Foundation. , . and that systematically altering environmental variables can generate a sociocultural system that very closely approximates utopia.Skinner, B.F. (1971). Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Knopf. , .
Summary The first-person narrator and protagonist, Professor Burris, a university instructor of psychology, is approached by two young men (one a former student) in the late 1940s. The young men are recent veterans of World War II and, intrigued by utopianism, express interest in an old acquaintance of Burris, named T. E. Frazier, who in the 1930s founded an intentional community. Burris contacts Frazier, who invites them all to stay for several days to experience life in the supposedly utopian community. Venturing to the community, named Walden Two, the young men bring their girlfriends, and Professor Burris brings along his colleague Professor Castle, who teaches philosophy and ethics.
The rest of the book proceeds largely as a novel of ideas, mostly involving Frazier, a smug, talkative, and colorful character, guiding his new visitors around Walden Two and proudly explaining its socio-politico-economic structures and collectivist achievements. A wide range of intellectual topics—behavioral modification, political ethics, educational philosophy, sexual equality (specifically, advocacy for women in the workforce), the common good, historiography, freedom and free will, fascism, American democracy, and Soviet communism—is discussed and often debated among the self-satisfied Frazier, the skeptical and doubting Castle, and the quietly intrigued Burris.
Walden Two operates using a flexible design, by continually experimenting with the most successful, evidence-based strategies to organize the community. Praising Walden Two's decision-making system for not being authoritarian, anarchic, or even democratic, Frazier argues that Walden Two thus avoids the way that most societies collapse or grow dysfunctional: by remaining dogmatically rigid in their politics and social structure. Except for a small fluctuating group of community Planners (temporarily including Frazier), Walden Two has no real governing body or power to exercise violent force over its citizens. Each member is apparently self-motivated, with a relaxed work schedule of only four hours of work a day, on average. Any labor performed supports the common good and is accompanied by the freedom to select a fresh new place to work each day. Members then use their remaining free time to engage in creative, intellectual, or recreational activities of their own choosing, while automatically receiving ample food and sleep. The only currency is a simple system of points that buys greater leisure periods in exchange for less desirable forms of work. Certain radically unusual customs of Walden Two include: children raised communally, families being non-nuclear, free love, and personal expressions of thanks regarded as taboo. Such behavior is mandated by the community's individually self-enforced "Walden Code", a guideline that encourages members to credit all individual and other achievements to the larger community. Community counselors are also available to assist with better understanding and following the Code. A rigorous program of "behavioral engineering" is begun at birth and completed during childhood, yet the adults of Walden Two indeed appear to be legitimately peaceful, productive, happy, well-rounded, and self-directed people.
Excitedly, two of the young visitors sign up and are soon admitted as permanent members. Castle, though, has fostered a growing hunch that Frazier is somehow presenting a sham society or is in fact, secretly, a dictator. Defending the virtues of American-style democracy, he finally confronts Frazier directly, accusing him of despotism, though he has no definitive proof. Frazier rebuts, on the contrary, that the vision for Walden Two is as a place safe from all forms of despotism, even the "despotism of democracy". Frazier and Burris have pleasant talks in private, with Frazier revealing that other communities loosely associated with Walden Two have now cropped up. Although enticed by Walden Two's obvious success as a peaceful community, Burris finds it difficult to look past Frazier's irritating pride and boastfulness about the community. Frazier admits his pride but argues that his personality should not influence Burris's opinion of Walden Two and Burris's own observations. By the end of their stay, the remaining visitors leave the community in a mostly impressed state of wonder, except for Castle, who has stubbornly settled on the idea that, somehow, Frazier is a scoundrel and the community is fraudulent.
During the visitors' return to the university, Burris ultimately decides in an inspired moment that he wishes to embrace the Walden Two lifestyle. Quickly abandoning his professorial post, Burris travels back in a long and spiritual journey on foot; he is welcomed once again to Walden Two with open arms.
The community The novel describes "an experimental community called Walden Two".Skinner, B. F. (1985). "News From Nowhere, 1984". The Behavior Analyst, 8(1), pp. 5–14. "My name is Burris. I live in an experimental community called Walden Two". p. 5.Altus, Deborah E., and Morris, Edward K. (2009). "B. F. Skinner's Utopian Vision: Behind and Beyond Walden Two". The Behavior Analyst, 32(2), pp. 319–335. B. F. Skinner regarded Walden Two as his "book about an experimental community". p. 320. The community is located in a rural area and "has nearly a thousand members".Walden Two, p. 18. The community encourages its members "to view every habit and custom with an eye to possible improvement" and to have "a constantly experimental attitude toward everything".Walden Two, p. 25. The culture of Walden Two can be changed if experimental evidence favors proposed changes. The community emulates (on a communal scale) the simple living and self-sufficiency that Henry David Thoreau practiced (on an individual scale) at Walden Pond, as described in his 1854 book Walden. Walden Two engages in behavioral engineering of young children that aims toward cooperative relationships and the erasure of competitive sentiments. The community has also dissolved the nuclear family through placing the responsibility of child-rearing in the hands of the larger community and not just the child's parents or immediate family.
Community governance Walden Two consists of four loose classes or groupings of people by occupation (though they are not akin to strict economic classes): Planners, Managers, Workers, and Scientists. Walden Two has a constitution that provides for a "Board of Planners", which is Walden Two's "only government",Walden Two, p. 48. though the power they wield only amounts to that, approximately, of community organizers. The idea for the "Board of Planners" was conceived while Walden Two was still in its earliest theoretical stages, and there are "six Planners, usually three men and three women", who are "charged with the success of the community. They make policies, review the work of the Managers (heads of each area of labor), keep an eye on the state of the nation in general. They also have certain judicial functions." A Planner "may serve for ten years, but no longer." A vacancy on the Board of Planners is filled by the Board "from a pair of names supplied by the Managers". Furthermore, the Walden Two constitution "can be changed by a unanimous vote of the Planners and a two-thirds vote of the Managers".Walden Two, p. 254.
Frazier and five other people constitute the current Board of Planners during Burris's visit to Walden Two. Planners hold office in staggered, limited terms. They do not rule with any kind of force and are so extremely opposed to creating a cult of personality, system of favoritism, or other possibilities for corruption going against the common good that they do not even publicly announce their office, and, likewise, most of the community members do not bother to know the Planners' identities. Due to this and also as a result of this, the Planners live as modestly as the other members of the community; ostentatious displays of wealth and status simply have no opportunity to arise from Walden Two's egalitarian cultural structure.
Managers, meanwhile, are "specialists in charge of the divisions and services of Walden Two". A member of the community can "work up to be a Manager – through intermediate positions which carry a good deal of responsibility and provide the necessary apprenticeship".Walden Two, p. 49. The Managers are not elected by the members of Walden Two in any kind of democratic process. The method of selecting Managers is not specified, though they are likely appointed by the Board of Planners.
The regular community members are known (though only for official reasons) as Workers, and they have the flexible option of changing their field and location of employment every single day, so as not to grow bored or stagnant during the week with their four-on-average daily hours of work. Available work often includes the necessary physical labor that goes into maintaining a community, such as basic building or repairing projects, cleaning duties, or agricultural work. Labor in Walden Two operates using a simple point system of units called "credits", in which more menial or unpleasant jobs (such as waste management) earn a Worker a higher number of credits than more relaxing or interesting jobs, ultimately allowing more free time for that Worker.