Paula Wild

Sointula was a communal society founded on an island in British Columbia in 1901. Like almost all small communal societies it did not endure, but the reader is left with the impression that it might have succeeded had a few unfortunate events been avoided. The society was founded on socialistic principles, valuation of hard work, temperance, some theosophical influences, and the idea that religion should be a personal rather than an institutional experience. I had previously read a bit about the commune, which left me with the impression that it was a complete failure. Yet many of the original members remained in Sointula after the formal collapse of the commune and the author Paula Wild supplies a fascinating history of this post-commune culture, which retained many of the ideals of the original Utopian settlers.… (mehr)