History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 4
Robert Owen: Social Reformer
There is but one mode by which man can possess in perpetuity all the happiness which his nature is capable of enjoying - that is by the union and co-operation of all for the benefit of each.
And with this words, Robert Owen expressed his vision of utopia, an idea not unfamiliar even in the 18th and 19th centuries in which Owen lived, but made unique by Owen’s ability to personal finance his grand experiments of utopian socialism.
Born in Wales in 1771, Robert Owen worked his way into financial success at a young age. He used his riches as a philanthropist and social reformer - and soon, took to buying up entire communities in Britain with hopes of finding success in his ideas on a small scale, using his money to publicize and promote his ideas to British citizens and politicians. These ideas included ahead-of-their-time reforms of free healthcare, limited work days, prohibiting child labor, mandatory education for children, and continued education for adults - all at the expense of the community as a whole.
Owen was discouraged by his lack of success in Britain, particularly New Lanark. In 1825, Owen decided to take his experiment across the Atlantic, and purchased a community in northwestern Indiana, USA. He named it New Harmony, a proposed “Heaven on Earth,” and sent much of his family there as he traveled back and forth between the two nations, deciding to put his son in charge of running the new experimental utopia. The same ideas used back in Britain were implemented in the new community, which also offered plenty of activities and events to keep up the community’s morale. Soon though, the community - which was filled with intellectuals (“thinkers, not doers”), vagabonds, and others from the edges of society, began to break into numerous sub-communities, effectively destroying Owen’s vision. By 1829, most deemed the community of New Harmony to be a failure.
Owen would live the rest of his life convinced that despite his failures, he had the solution to society’s woes - and on his deathbed, he left the world with these words: “My life was not useless; I gave important truths to the world, and it was only for want of understanding that they were disregarded. I have been ahead of my time.”
