Unit
Working, Playing
(chapters 8-11)
The touring group acquires
labor credits. The purpose of this unit
is to consider the nature and role of work in modern life. There should be dignity in all work; it
should be distributed among all citizens; a leisure class, if permitted, will
make increasing demands on others; with proper efficiency, planning, and control,
no one need work more than half the typical working day in modern society.
Summary
After dinner, Burris thanks
Frazier for his hospitality. Frazier
explains that it is no imposition for him.
He earns labor credits for taking charge of their visit.
Labor credits serve as
currency in Walden Two. All goods and
services are free; each member contributes to the community with twelve hundred
labor credits each year. The number of
labor credits required from each member depends upon the needs of the
community. In its present state,
members of Walden Two work only four hours a day.
As Frazier explains,
different credit values are assigned to different types of work. The less pleasant the work, the higher is
its credit value. A man in a sewer
needs to work only two hours per day.
The credit value for working with flowers is so low that no one can make
a living simply by working in the flower garden.
Castle resists the idea of
labor credits, suggesting that Walden Two does not offer complete freedom of
choice in work. Frazier replies that,
with so many attractive alternatives, no one is unhappy if a particular course
of action is not available. There are
many others. It is the same way with
the choice of a mate, he replies. The
idea of "one and only" arises more from singleness of opportunity
than from constancy of the heart.
This statement provokes
Burris to inquire about the government of Walden Two. The only government, Frazier explains, is a Board of Planners,
three men and three women, who may serve up to ten years. These Planners are responsible for the
overall state of the community. They
make policy, review the success of the Managers, and have judicial
functions. They receive two labor
credits per day, and of the two remaining labor credits, one must be physical
labor.
The Managers, as the name
implies, are in charge of specific services.
Thus, there are Managers of Health, Arts, Food, Dentistry, Play, the
Nursery School, and others. They have
an immediate, direct concern for specific functions in the community, and they
are the hardest workers.
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The community members
neither choose nor elect Planners or Managers.
But, according to Frazier, they do not want a voice in the matter,
anyway. Community members may become
trained and tested as Managers, if they wish, through apprenticeships and
intermediate positions, and then the Managers, in turn, make nominations for the
Board of Planners, which selects its own replacements.
To eliminate the caste
system, there are no honorific titles.
For example, Mr. Meyerson is a certified doctor and Worker. Furthermore, there are only Planners,
Managers, and Workers, apart from the Scientists, who deal with practical
problems and, like Managers, receive two or three labor credits per day.
Both brains and brawn are
required by everyone in the labor force.
Everyone does one or two hours of physical work each day, which keeps
the community healthy and ensures that the Planners, Managers and Scientists
will not forget the problems of the big-muscle user.
Most striking to Castle and
Burris is the four-hour workday.
Frazier cites seven reasons why Walden Two can operate in this manner..
First, people work more quickly and skillfully because the fatigue factor is
less. Second, they produce more because
motivation is high; they are working for their community, not for a
profit-taking boss. Third, everyone in
the community contributes; there is no unemployment. Fourth, there is better use of workers. Everyone works with the
best labor-serving devices, the most efficient methods, and appropriate
training. Fifth, Walden Two has eliminated unnecessary jobs: banks, loan
companies, advertising agencies, insurance businesses, funeral parlors, bars,
taverns, and so forth. Sixth, Walden
Two has doubled its workforce by fully employing women, and they also use
industrialized housewifery. Seventh,
there is a low consumption of goods, despite the high standard of living. Personal wealth is small. The members, practicing the Thoreauvian
principle, avoid unnecessary possessions.
Before the visitors retire
to their rooms, Frazier indicates that they too will be expected to contribute
labor credits. Otherwise, he explains, the members of Walden Two would feel
inhospitable, for their guests would be thinking that they ought to leave.
(Chapter 8)
The next morning after
breakfast the guests proceed to the Work Desk to choose their jobs for earning
labor credits. They decide to wash windows at one point two credits. For
efficiency, they organize themselves into three pairs and divide the job into
three parts: removing, cleaning, and polishing the windows. At the end of the
two-hour period, Burris decides that this work is better than grading blue
books, and a red-faced Castle rates it higher than reading term papers. (Chapter
9)
During lunch Frazier
compares Walden Two with other self-sufficient communities returning to
primitive modes of farming and industry. Walden Two goes to the farm for food
and clothing, but it does not ignore technology. The community is interested in
saving labor. The aim is to diminish the work, not the worker.
A truck ride after lunch
takes the visitors to the dairy, where the Dairy Manager describes the work
with milk, cream, fodder, and manure. Burris notes a difference between the
Manager and Frazier in the way they regard the farm equipment. For the Manager, a cream separator extracts
the cream. For Frazier, it saves labor and time. The Manager is concerned with
the specifics of each job; Frazier is concerned with general principles and
social engineering.
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With pride, Frazier explains
how social engineering aided the farmers, who were being ostracized due to the
objectionable odors they acquired from their work. A building was divided into
three parts: a room for dress clothes, a shower room, and a room for work
clothes. Coming to work, the farmers took off their dress clothes, took a
shower, and changed into work clothes. Leaving work, they used these rooms in
the reverse order for the opposite purpose.
While the guests visit a
series of workshops, Frazier explains that the community is not completely
self-sufficient. There is a
"foreign exchange," not yet entirely satisfactory. Frazier feels it could be more efficient.
They visit buildings for
looms, woodworking, and metal-working, as well as experimental laboratories and
a shed with an earth-rammer, at which most of the workers are surprisingly
young. Frazier explains that they are
probably building their own living quarters.
He refers to this interest as "a sort of nesting instinct,"
part of being in love in the community.
In the clothing shop, Mary
demonstrates an unusual stitch on a large embroidery frame, and her
contribution is appreciated by members of the community. No one thanks her, and fortunately Mary
expected no direct expression, which would have made everyone uneasy. (Chapter
10)
Before dinner, Burris
examines the bulletin board, which has announcements for meetings, parties,
concerts, and other entertainment.
Frazier points out that the community does not need garish posters. Simple notices are quite sufficient because
the community members have been conditioned to be excited by these
posters. They evoke the pleasant
experiences which they have preceded in the past.
Concerts at Walden Two
generally are fifty minutes
long. The ease with which community
members can attend them makes fifty minutes appropriate. In the city, the trip to the concert,
parking, buying the tickets, perhaps bad weather, and the other miscellaneous
tasks require a two- or three-hour performance. For all the time and effort involved, a shorter performance would
not be satisfactory.
Frazier directs the
conversation towards patronage of the arts.
Why, he asks, is the American culture so lacking in production of art,
compared with science and technology? The
answer is because the proper conditions are not available.
"Prizes, Frazier stresses, "only scratch
the surface. You can't encourage art
with money
alone."
Artists must be free from
the responsibility of earning a livelihood in order to produce their works. This is the essence of art-it draws on
energies and talents which, under more demanding circumstances, would go into
earning a livelihood. In addition,
artists need more social support; they need to be stimulated and appreciated.
Cultural engineering at
Walden Two attempts to give each person the opportunity to develop as far as
possible in a given area. The
environment is arranged to provide suitable resources and an appreciative
audience. Children are exposed to
opportunities in music and art in their earliest years.
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Burris objects: "How
many geniuses can you expect to get from a limited assortment of genes?" A
discussion of the roles of heredity and environment ensues with Burris arguing
for the former and Frazier for the latter.
Whatever the answer, Frazier says, we must make the most of our genes by
establishing the most favorable environments.
At this point Burris remembers the impressive paintings in the Ladder. All of them, says Frazier, were painted by
members of the community. "Right
conditions, that's all," he says.
“Right conditions ......”
Burris ruminates on the
psychology of artistic creation and decides that he should research that area
in the library. Then he realizes how
differently Frazier would approach the problem. The answer for Frazier would not be in books but in
experimentation.
In the final scene, Frazier,
Castle, and Burris enjoy a small concert.
They are most impressed, especially Burris. (Chapter 11)