Brook Farm: Historic and Personal MemoirsCodman, John Thomas
History
Brook Farm: Historic and Personal Memoirs
Codman, John Thomas
Brook Farm Phalanx (West Roxbury, Boston, Mass.)
Having traced the progress of society from its earliest forms to our
present civilization, it can be easily shown how the supreme or
governing power is first in the hands of the most powerful physically;
then passes to the one most able by prowess to sway a tribe or people;
then passes into the hierarchy of the church, that rules by swaying
mental terrors; next into the hierarchy of the state, that rules by
both mental and physical terrors; and, in our present civilization, has
passed or is passing rapidly into the hands of a moneyed class ruling
with powers according to the amount of capital swayed; and it can be
proved that these changes are but the natural result of forces that are
as sure and constant as sunlight and electricity.
This present form of social power, it is argued, is transient, and like
the others, will pass away and be replaced, and can only be replaced by
anarchy, or by a hierarchy of organized talent arranged in serial order
from the most talented down to the humblest laborer, and this was
another of the grand ideas of the Brook Farmers. From the seeds of this
civilization will spring--is springing--a higher order. It is an order
that the teacher Fourier called "_guaranteeism_." It is an order in
which the _governing power_ passes from the moneyed aristocracy into
the hands of _organized bodies_. It is an order in which the spiritual
and material truths are incorporated into organic societies and
governments which guarantee to everyone support in sickness and
protection from dangers of various sorts; an order which, in fact,
abounds in mutual guarantees covering by degrees all the numerous
necessities and wants of life--hence its name; and finally, in the
process of time, placing all the material wants of the people under
protective guarantees.
This fifth condition of society must pass into the sixth order, which
is the _associative order_, or the coöperative phase of society in
which it will be proven by practical works that, by adherence to
principles and proper organizations, we may avoid a large share of the
miseries we have in the past so unsparingly laid to the charge of the
Deity as discipline for us, but which are the results of our own
ignorance. The "_harmonic order_" is associated life of a high type,
and includes association of families, economy of means, unity of
interests, labor made attractive, equitable distribution of profits,
integral justice, etc., in such a way as to bring about very great
happiness among _all_ people, thus deserving its grand name. From the
commencement of the age of harmony, which is a higher octave of life,
society begins a new era, the beauties and accords of which no one can
do more than speculate upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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