Walden Two by B.F. Skinner

Author:B.F. Skinner [Skinner, B.F.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Published: 2010-04-09T14:00:00+00:00

20

FRAZIER led us in the direction of the personal rooms, and I hoped that we might be going to his own quarters, which I was curious to see. But we turned and climbed a low ramp to the roof of the common rooms. Many members were sitting up here in the early twilight. It was a part of Walden Two of which I had had no hint.

There was a pleasant breeze, and the sky was almost uniformly pink in a curious sort of early sunset. We collected a few deck and beach chairs and two or three leather cushions and arranged ourselves to enjoy both the evening and the conversation.

Frazier turned first to Castle.

“Have you ever taught a course in ethics, Mr. Castle?” he said.

“I have taught a course in ethics every year for thirteen years,” said Castle in his most precise manner.

“Then you can tell us what the Good Life consists of,” said Frazier.

“Oh, no, I can’t,” said Castle, “not by any means. You are thirteen years too late.”

Frazier was delighted.

“Then let me tell you,” he said.

“By all means,” said Castle jovially. “But I must inform you that everything you say will be taken down and may be used against you. I’ve been waiting for this. Unless you can show me what the Good Life consists of, and that you can achieve it in Walden Two, I shall tell you to take your power looms and your food lockers and your glass trays and I’ll go back to the Square Deal Pants Store and the Hamburgteria.”

“Of course, I know nothing about your course in ethics,” Frazier said, “but the philosopher in search of a rational basis for deciding what is good has always reminded me of the centipede trying to decide how to walk. Simply go ahead and walk! We all know what’s good, until we stop to think about it. For example, is there any doubt that health is better than sickness?”

“There might be a time when a man would choose ill-health or death, even,” said Castle. “And we might applaud his decision.”

“Yes, but you’re moving the wrong foot. Try the one on the opposite side.” This was not playing fair, and Castle obviously resented it. He had made a friendly gesture and Frazier was taking advantage of it. “Other things being equal, we choose health,” Frazier continued. “The technical problem is simple enough. Perhaps we can find time tomorrow to visit our medical building.

“Secondly, can anyone doubt that an absolute minimum of unpleasant labor is part of the Good Life?” Frazier turned again to Castle, but he was greeted with a sullen silence.

“That’s the millionaire’s idea, anyway,” I said.

“I mean the minimum which is possible without imposing on anyone. We must always think of the whole group. I don’t mean that we want to be inactive—we have proved that idleness doesn’t follow. But painful or uninteresting work is a threat to both physical and psychological health. Our plan was to reduce unwanted work to a minimum, but we wiped it out.

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