Owen: Politics and Theory

Politics and Theoretics 

Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Special Collections

Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Special Collections

Property

The featured image is a two-paragraph section from Owen's manifesto A Dream of an Ideal City (9). Owen does not want to eliminate private property completely; rather he believes it "should be held sacred" (9). He does believe in separation of municipal and private property, but most importantly that "public property will never be allowed to be monopolized by and for the benefit of a few" (9). The monopolizing or privatization of public space (polis) is addressed by the great 21^st Century philosophy Hannah Arendt, particularly in her books The Origin of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition. Arendt’s concept of public space is that such space is an enfranchisement genuinely extended to any and all persons. She holds this notion of public space in opposition to that which is held in “common” or “common space,” which can conceal hegemony as a set of norm.

Arendt, Hannah, et al. The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press, 2018.

Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Special Collections

Owen on Women

Women could be shareholders, and could choose and fill any office. Their pay was not, as it elsewhere generally was, less than that of the men. Owen wrote: “The woman manages and spends her own property as she pleases, seeks out any occupation she likes, and depends upon the man as little as he does upon her. This complete independence will at last make woman truly noble, free, and intelligent. Then she will influence society in a favorable manner. In Pacific City, she will even have three more rights than man: She takes precedence in the choice of a calling, has a title to the best seats in assemblies or amusements, and she need work only six hours (later on four) five days a week, while the man must work eight hours (later on six) six days a week.” Regarding marriage, it was considered merely a civil contract, which could be dissolved without formality if the married couple could not agree. But only monogamy in the strictest sense was permissible. "Although the possibility of providing for themselves by their own work, and making themselves independent without the bond of marriage, will free women from the necessity of making marriages de coitvenance," Owen encouraged early marriages from motives of morality, and on this account, took into consideration the taxation of bachelors, as well as especial rewards to men who married under thirty years of age.

Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Special Collections

The Problem of the Age

In this excerpt from Integral Co-operation, Owen denotes the “problem of the age” is that the “chief part” of wealth produced by human labor reaches the pockets of the few, while the majority of people in the labor force become increasingly poorer (16). Owen argues that this “problem” persists until either a population becomes slaves, or, society rebels, overthrows the government, and establishes a new governing body. Seeing that Owen determines this vexation as the “problem of the age,” we can understand why Owen would design the Credit Fancier to use labor as the backing commodity for its system of credit. As noted at the bottom of the said excerpt, Owen implies that a correction of the age-old problem (such as his Credit Fancier) will lead to “general prosperity and consequent contentment and happiness of the people” (16). As a parenthetical note, A. Owen holds that institutional distribution and redistribution is the task of the government, as opposed to the many times attempted and finally established private centralized banking system of the United States in 1913.

Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Special Collections

Owen: Dante and Labor

Photo Courtesy of Fresno State Special Collections

Topolobampo: City on a Hill

John Winthrop wrote that the “fleshe is eagerly inclined to pride, and wantonnesse,” the solution to which is “temperance in diet.”





Evil, defined as intemperate moral and physical consumption, is the cause and price of the Fall of Milton’s mankind