Buying the Farm: Peace and War on a Sixties Commune

11. The Farm and Its Legacy (2002–2006)

M 169 N 11 The Farm and Its Legacy (2002–2006) On a recent visit to the farm, I considered the changes that had come to it and reflected on the path both the farm and its inhabitants had traveled. As the new Peacemaker Circle International, the farm that had reluctantly accepted electricity, plumbing, and a telephone now had a website of its own. The summer kitchen of which I had once been so proud was gone; the cabin I had built was in ruins. But the barn where we had milked cows and created simple furniture from reclaimed boards was now a state-of-the-art meditation and conference center called the House of One People. Local conjecture suggested that nearly a million dollars had gone into its renovation and the reconfiguring of the surrounding land. Looking at the farm in view ofits changes and history, it seemed to me that its true legacy was as an embodiment ofideals, ofreaching some tangible level of success in leading a life of independence from expectations and routine, and as a bellwether for political, cultural, and social change. Certainly it had had a number of successes—the activism, environmentalism , and role as an agent of social change for which it was known. But, looked at in another light, it had clearly failed in several of the highest goals it was thought to represent. It had failed to support some of its neediest individuals; it had failed to create a sustainable community; and looking at the world in recent years, it seemed to me that it had failed to 170 N CHAPTER 11 engage the nation it had sought to sway, in an influential way, in some of its core beliefs. Some of the progressive agenda of our era had of course prevailed and even been assimilated into American and international life—especially in matters of entertainment, dress, and style of life—but in a world still in thrall to class, war, race, consumerism, and many ofthe other causes we had taken on, the best that could be said, perhaps, is that we had won some battles, but certainly not the war. Really, I concluded, the farm was a naive organization, one that did not strive to evaluate or promote its own success in any calculated way. That was as it was intended to be. We were never a doctrinaire group with a list of tasks posted on the fridge or a long-range agenda. If the farm was a victim, I felt, it was, like other experiments of its time, the victim of its own unfettered style and unfocused beliefs. As with most such organizations , its wounds were often self-inflicted. It was also a casualty of other, largely unavoidable factors: the youthfulness of its original members, its philosophical resistance to mustering its resources, and the complex times through which it had endured. Individuals who left the farm had often continued in the succeeding years to follow their beliefs and, despite the usual obstacles, generally found their own way. But for those who remained, being bound to the farm or its sister organizations posed difficult questions. What was the purpose of the farm? To whom did it belong? Who should pay its bills, or benefit when they were paid? Who had rights and authority there, and who did not? The free-form, idealistic outlook of the farm offered no structure to deal with such issues, no method to turn belief into practicable reality. Times have changed, though, and some of the ideals of our era have indeed been incorporated into American culture, and often beyond. Did the farm and its family play a role? I think so. When larger themes are considered—romanticism, activism, social issues (love, money, leadership , property, work), and others—I think it will be seen that the farms in their influential years were an island ofsanity ofa certain sort, though to many they did not appear so at the time. Their legacy is the important American one of the value of contrarianism and independence, a stance that is all the more important the harder it becomes to sustain. There is, however, another side to this ideal. As I point out to literate friends who ask why I left a place considered an Eden some forty years ago: We M 171 THE FARM AND ITS LEGACY (2002–2006) all like to glean important cultural lessons from Thoreau...