Introduction
Walden Two is a bizarre utopian novel written by Burrhus Frederick Skinner a behavioral specialist in 1945 during World War II. It was first published in 1948 a time when Skinner had thought deeply of the current events taking place in his society and in the world at large. Though quite seriously intended, Walden Two comes across as an unplanned travesty of social engineering. It basically describes a community in which one thousand people live in plenty and harmony through the purposeful practice of behavioral engineering. Critically, the book makes a leap off from studies and analysis in the library to a vast social setting where Skinner views people as animals due to certain predicaments he had gone through. The novel is therefore a development of Skinner’s conviction about falling economic, political and social system in the society.
The Setting
The community described in Walden Two is located in a rural setting that has close to one thousand members. This community persuades its members to view every custom and habit critically with a constant attitude towards all aspects surrounding them. This community imitates the self-sufficient and simple living described by several leaders who live as modestly. Members of the community are very productive, happy, and creative. As a self governed community, happiness derives from the promotion of family life, the creation of art, rich social relationship, literature and music. These members buy into the Walden Code concept of self-control techniques that consents to maintaining a prolific happy life. The community has a constitution that provides for legal planners who act as the government, who are charged with the success of the community. Among their duties is keeping an eye on the state and reviewing the work of the managers. There are also managers, professionals in charge of the services and divisions of Walden Two. This team is the heart of the entire community who strive to carry on the system in the community while improving activities in the community.
Plot
The first part is quite symbolic; the novel is situated in a historical, social and intellectual context of the utopian genre that addresses appraisals of the novel’s practices and premises discussing the provision of global communities. The two university professors and psychologists Dr. Castle and Dr. Burris who also are recent World War II veterans visit a tentative community with their girlfriends where principles of behaviorists such as reinforcement are applied. Burris’s graduated school classmate through a four-day tour, conduct the all the six visitors and Frazier gives an explanation of the changes he has made from a conventional society.
In the second part practices that advance human well-being and social justice under the themes of wealth, wisdom and health are described showing exactly how the succeeding literature supports Skinner’s prescience in applied behavior analysis. Seemingly, an analysis of applied behavior is basically an evaluation of the success of Skinner’s vision of utopia.
The Characters
Frazier is the main character in the story, the founder of Walden Two. He steers a couple of people, six visitors including the reader through the setting of the community and explains its philosophy, beliefs and ideologies. There is also another character mentioned in the novel; Burris. Apparently, Burris is supposed to be B.F Skinner though it appears that Frazier is more of B.F. Skinner’s biggest associate. Castle is another character described as useless, unsympathetic abstract professor who apparently is Frazier’s main leading role. He repeatedly questions him and the society. Roger, Mary, Barbara and Steve are other characters mentioned in the story playing various roles in their respective capacities.
The story
Steve Jamnik and Rogers (Rodge) are two young gentlemen at the end of WWII returning from service. They stop at Professor’s Burris’s office to inquire if he is aware of a man known as Frazier or the kind or society Frazier intends to build. It hits Burris’s mind that Frazier was once his classmate in the university. On realizing this, Burris sends a letter to Frazier who promptly replies asking him to pay a visit to the community. Without hesitation, Burris agrees to accompany Steve and Rogers on a casual visit to Frazier’s community “Walden Two”. Also accompanying the three gentlemen are; Burris’s colleague Castle, Roger’s girlfriend Barbara and Steve’s girlfriend Mary.
Upon arrival, Frazier greets them and welcomes them warmly. While in the new place, they are given a tour of Walden Two. This to them appears to be a taste of what it actually is to work and live in Walden Two. Walden Two has an estimated population of one thousand people who all seem to be happy and healthy. This community eats in common dining spaces, lives communally, grows and builds much of what they need and raises their children communally in a nursery. Surprisingly, nothing at Walden Two costs money, no one is paid wages and the standard workday barely lasts for four hours. The biggest question is how Walden Two has managed to achieve this utopia. The answer is “a science of behavior”. It is the secret behind the utopia. Everything done at Walden Two is entirely based on a human principle; ‘principles of behaviorism’ which states that the behavior by humans can seemingly be restricted and controlled by influencing eventualities of reward and punishment to a lesser extent. As early as toddlers, persons in Walden Two are conditioned to be happy and productive members of society. This suggests that by and large Walden Two is an intrinsically experimental community.
Every visitor is amazed and responds to the community differently. Castle on the other hand finds it very objectionable and decides to spend the rest of the time discussing with Frazier on the attractiveness and the practicability of a very successful community like Walden Two. Every other visitor sees things on their own perspective; Burris lie on no side, he is somewhere in the middle and is much unconvinced that certain ideologies and ideas such as utopia really work. He actually finds everything quite compelling especially Frazier’s argument.
Mary and Steve have their thoughts too. They are pretty much convinced that the life at Walden Two is the life they deserve; they make up their mind and opt to live in Walden. Rodge like Mary and Steve is convinced too, he posits that life at Walden Two is the ideal life one has ever wished for. Barbara on the contrary isn’t convinced, at the end of the visit, he leaves claiming that the whole concept in the utopian community is vague and that he cannot comprehend either. Burris is not convinced otherwise, he finds some quiet place and thinks critically of his encounter. After the visit, he decides to go back to his academic life. Burris is befuddled after he decides to leave. As he heads to the train station, it comes to his realization that life could be better in Walden Two than in the university. He sits back, thinks critically and after a short while walking back to Walden Two and begins a new life. The last chapter is more of an epilogue; Bliss and Frazier hold a lengthy discussion on the publishing and writing of the earlier narrative. Their intention is to spread the good word about Walden Two, the distinctive factor between the ordinary world and the civilized land ‘the utopian community’.
Conclusion
Psychologist B.F. Skinner has thrown out a challenge that seeks to discover if psychologists could ever understand mankind condition’s so well to a point of creating a utopia, by literally engineering human behavior as suggested by Skinner. Walden Two relates pretty much with modern psychology, Skinner notes that the more we human beings resist ideas, the more power they draw from our very resistance. The use and the theory of reward to modify certain manners and behaviors in this context have been applied with comprehensive effectiveness in various situations. Today in schools, Skinner’s behavior system is far and wide used where teachers and instructors are encouraging students to set standard behavior goals.
Today, Walden Two plays a key role in carrying on the principle that defines control of conduct as an unavoidable fact. This concept is of paramount importance as it determines if the suggested control could be premeditated by humans. In our world today, it advocates for social changes using nonpolitical empiricism which suggests that at all cost, political action has to be avoided. In addition to that, this concept suggests that our rewards, aversions and punishments we experience in life will eventually shape who we are. Psychology plays a critical role in defining our personalities. Walden Two represents a happy, healthy and prosperous community the real definition of a prosperous society. Consequently, in modern psychology, it relates to a scenario where we human beings choose the kind of life we want to lead. It relates to the different kinds of personalities in the universe where people have varied preferences. The promise of our solution is found in the application of behavior analysis to enhance community and individual health, wealth and wisdom.
