Walden Two is a novel written by the behaviorist B.F. Skinner.
A renegade professor named Frazier conjures up a utopia. Skinner didn’t write the book in a particularly gloomy time for the human race. On the contrary, things were looking up. It was actually the discontent that he saw in his own wife that inspired him. She seemed unfulfilled in her domestic role.
Walden Two was named after the experiment carried out by Henry David Thoreau, the author of Walden. Walden Two was a future society in which child rearing was shared by the community, where policy was not implemented according to the half-baked ideas of a political elite. In this new society, scientific consensus was the arbiter of moral and behavioral truths.
By conducting small-scale experiments, it would become possible to learn about how to make and keep people happy, how to prevent addictions from forming. Whenever scientific consensus changed, the laws would change. Corporate interest, personal interests, or political interests are of no consequence.
Thoreau wrote about his experience of escaping from society and learning how to become self-sufficient. The guiding principle to the problem of making money was, “have less needs.” That is the main basis of Skinner’s work. Rather than be motivated to work long hours to afford things one does not need, one should work the minimum and only buy what they cannot do without. The extra step that Skinner takes is to apply this thinking to a community rather than an individual.
In the world today, there are ways in which Skinner’s vision has been implemented. Behavioral economics and the phenomenon of ‘nudging’ or designing environments so that desirable behaviors are rewarded, and undesirable behaviors are punished has earned considerable attention by world leaders. Businesses and governments make use of behaviorist principles to encourage desired behaviors in the employees, customers, and the general population. The difference between the world today and Walden Two is that traditional social structures remain intact. People can still choose to form families. And rather than follow scientific consensus, decisions are still very much colored by political and economic considerations.
Excerpts from Walden Two
Page 10
Should we not rather ask whether we need cities? With modem systems of communication and transportation, businesses do not need to be within walking or taxicab distances of each other, and how many people must one be near in order to live a happy life? People who flock to cities looking for jobs and more interesting lives will flock back again if jobs and more interesting lives are to be found where they came from.
Interesting observation in light of the changes that occurred because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Page 11
The experimental analysis of behavior has clearly shown that it is not the quantity of goods that counts (as the law of supply and demand suggests) but the contingent relation between goods and behavior. That is why, to the amazement of the American tourist, there are people in the world who are happier than we are, while possessing far less.
Page 13
In spite of our lip service to freedom, we do very little to further the development of the individual. How many Americans can say that they are doing the kinds of things they are best qualified to do and most enjoy doing.
Page 14
The effective use of leisure is almost completely neglected in modem life. We boast of our short workday and week, but what we do with the free time we have to spend is nothing of which we can be very proud. The leisure classes have almost always turned to alcohol and other drugs, to gambling, and to watching other people lead exhausting or dangerous lives, and we are no exception. Thanks to television millions of Americans now lead the exciting and dangerous lives of other people.
Many states are legalizing gambling and have set up lotteries of their own. Alcohol and drugs are consumed in ever-increasing quantities. One may spend one’s life in these ways and be essentially unchanged at the end of it.
Page 15
Yes, but what about economics and government? Must we not answer those questions too? I am not sure we must. Consider the following economic propositions. The first is from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: by reducing the amount of goods we consume, we can reduce the amount of time we spend in unpleasant labor.
The second appears to assert just the opposite: we must all consume as much as possible so that everyone can have a job. I submit that the first is more reasonable, even though the second is defended by many people today.
Indeed, it might be argued that if America were to convert to a network of small communities, our economy would be wrecked. But something is wrong when it is the system that must be saved rather than the way of life that the system is supposed to serve.
Page 29
Rogers had searched the library for a copy of Frazier’s old article, and he read it to us. It set forth the argument Rogers had outlined three days before. Political action was of no use in building a better world, and men of good will had better turn to other measures as soon as possible. Any group of people could secure economic self-sufficiency with the help of modem technology, and the psychological problems of group living could be solved with available principles of behavioral engineering.”