The Kibbutz Returns to Nature

In Darwinian Natural Right, I have a section on the kibbutz as an example of "secular communism." From their earliest foundings at the beginning of the 20th century, these Jewish socialist communities have been one of the most radical attempts at establishing pure socialism. In the original communities, private property and private families were abolished. Not only was all property shared in common, but children were reared in common without special ties between parents and children. This was one of the purest efforts to establish the sort of socialism prescribed by Marx and others.

My argument was that this was contrary to evolved human nature, and therefore it was not surprising that the kibbutzim were forced to give up much of their original socialism, particularly in response to the second generation of mothers and children who found the abolition of parent-child bonding too painful to endure.

I know a woman who was reared in the "children's house" of a kibbutz in Israel. She describes how painful this was and how she left as soon as she could, and then became remarkably conservative in her moral and political views, rebelling against the utopian socialism of her parents.

Now, the New York Times has an article on the recent history of the kibbutzim. It seems that not only have they given up on abolishing private families, but now they are even giving up on abolishing private property, as they increasingly rely on privatization and market incentives.

So we see even the most radical socialists returning to nature--returning to the private property and traditional family life of evolved human nature.