| In 1973, Kat Kinkade's highly acclaimed A Walden Two Experiment told the country how a unique attempt at shared living had struggled and triumphed in its first five years. Now, with Is It Utopia Yet?, Kat brings us another lively, firsthand account of Twin Oaks' continued development as one of America's most prominent and successful cooperative communities. The book includes detail about some of the conflicts that Twin Oaks has lived through and the people who were caught up in them. Kat speaks frankly and thoughtfully about the changes Twin Oaks has gone through and her own changing role in the Community. As a bonus, the 320 page book also contains over sixty cartoons about community living from the pen of Twin Oaks member Jonathan Roth. What is it really like to live in a "Utopian" community? What happens to the high ideals of equality and social justice under the pressures of daily living with a continually-changing population of nearly a hundred people? Creating a new society presents many challenges- making a living, inventing a government, sharing the labor, raising children collectively, and reaching agreement about such things as diet, standard of living, and commitment to caring for the environment. Facing these tasks as a group means taking a hard look at the original principles. Does full economic equality really work? How far can a group compromise its ideals for the sake of holding its members? How much social conformity is necessary for peaceful cooperative living? Just how simple should the simple life be? Kat tells how these fundamental issues have been worked on through 25 years of communal living at Twin Oaks. |
