‘What would my idea of an ideal world look like?’, I remember thinking three months ago, disillusioned by the daily struggles of mainstream society. Several vague ideas began to form… a world where everyone contributes to society and takes from it equally? Where there are no rich and there are no poor? Where people take care of the environment that takes care of them? Where acceptance is paramount and love is love? While the real world is still a far cry from many if not any of these, there are still places that come close to many of these values. Welcome to Twin Oaks!
A short drive from Charlottsville, Virginia, nestled in the woods, lies this modern day hippie commune. I did the 3 week visitor program at twin oaks, a prerequisite for membership in this society. Why should you care about membership here? Let me tell you why everyone should care. Twin oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing society. This means everyone that lives here works in exchange for food, clothing, shelter, health care, child care, basically everything everything required for normal human functioning. It is built on the fundamental idea of sharing. Clothes are shared, equipment is shared, lives are shared. Twin Oaks has a population cap of a 100 adults at any given time, plus upto around 20 odd kids. The gender ratio isn’t allowed to go over 60:40 in any direction. Twin Oaks runs two production facilities - tofu production and hammock production, through which it sustains itself. The people at twin oaks lives on less than minimum wage, and yet everyone has almost everything they could want for, and some more. How is that possible, you ask? Well, therein lies the secret of community living. All able people work a quota of 44 hours a week - self reported, typically in jobs of their choice, often taking on responsibilities that may be unconventional in mainstream society. Some people work in the tofu plant where they operate the machinery, produce and package tofu, managing a flourishing business without an MBA degree. Others work in the garden planting and harvesting and nurturing crops that then go into the kitchen. People in the kitchen are in charge of preparing food for a hundred odd vegetarians, vegans, gluten free eaters, and meat eaters. The dairy team is in charge of tending to the cows and milking them. Some work in childcare, or in unicorns - a summer school for kids 2-6 (named by the kids themselves), or in running the forest school, or teaching older kids science, math, history and any other skills they may want to. Some make hammocks, others go on fairs and sell the hammocks. Some build houses, others watch kids. I could go on and on, everything from watching your own kids, to emotional labor, to helping someone that is sick counts towards the ‘weekly quota’, because after all, the idea is to be a part of and one with the community - from each by their ability to each by their needs. The visitor period at twin oaks is meant to be a glimpse into the workings of a community that’s both ordered and chaotic at the same time. The visitors - all nine of us, ranging from 15 to 50 years in age were immediately ushered into the twin oaks culture. We were all more than excited to be a part of it. I even celebrated my birthday at Twin Oaks! We got to do chores - fun farm jobs, jobs we wouldn’t have been qualified for in the outside world - and meet quota, just like anyone else here. There is an huge push towards breaking conventional gender roles here. The building maintenance manager at Twin Oaks is a women, as well as the manager of the warehouse. Men are actively involved in childcare, kitchen and domestic duties. Initially, I was rather baffled by the fact that labor was self reported, or that you could essentially get trained on any job you like. ‘What incentive do people have to work if no one is checking on them?’ I thought. Oh but therein lies the fallacy. A sense of commitment and loyalty and nurturing what you consider yours is a far superior motivator than material incentives. Age is funny at twin oaks. Romantic relationships don’t follow conventional ‘age norms’ - I think part of it has to with the fact that all people, irrespective of age, are equals and share the same social rank here. I noticed that people work early on and well into their life, not because they need to - they are weaned off of labor through a retirement plan, but because they want to contribute to a society that provides for them. For every year past 50 that an individual ages, they gain a ‘free hour’. Kids start contributing very early too, albeit in fairly small amounts, and slowly get bumped up to full workdays at 18 years of age. I had a lot of questions about how kids are raised in an environment like this. Ideally, parents ‘apply’ for membership, i.e., ask the community for permission to have/adopt a child, since after all, the community on the whole takes on responsibility for the child. Are the kids that are raised here oblivious to the social skills needed in the outside world? Are they educated in topics that one may never need in a community? Do they run free without regard to order and rules? Are they sometimes confused by the lack of conventional two-parent family structures? I was skeptical early on, naively so. However, after spending a few days here, I grew to appreciate and, in fact, desire, a commune life for any kids I may one day have. Most kids here are homeschooled, although the community does pay for any kid that wants to go to local public school outside. The younger kids spend time at the rainbow school, and then have ‘primaries’ or one on one time with individuals that share responsibility in raising the kids. I thought it was cool that the kids are homeschooled in public school syllabus, but can imbibe whatever they want from the adults here. Kids are extremely well socialised since they spend a significant amount of time with adults that aren’t their parents. They understand concepts of sharing and respect and consent early on. Their ‘classes’ include things like film studies, building houses, forest school, mushroom hunting, and often, partly due to the focused attention they receive, they tend to be ahead of public school syllabus. I hung out with a few people here that were raised in the community, and are now adults there, and they were nothing short of lovely people that I admire. The people at twin oaks technically live under minimum wage. Funnily enough though they lack for nothing. The community pays for a lot of things, including medical bills that medicaid doesn’t cover, hormone therapy, legal fees for members etc. Everyone is respected, all gender identities and sexual orientations are welcomed and nurtured. Personally, I found particularly liberating the acceptance and love of the human body. I stopped shaving the whole time I was at twin oaks. Twin oaks also has an artificial pond on its property, where people may swim naked, if they so desire, in a completely non-sexual environment. The idea of non-sexualizing and appreciating the human body with all it’s flaws and blemishes is heartening in a world where people, particularly teenagers, are constantly battling self-loathing and pressures to conform to unrealistic standards of beauty. Twin oaks isn’t a miracle, it runs through the hard work and commitment of the people here, commitment to a better, more accepting, more sustainable society. On one of my last days here, I went for a long walk in the woods right in the backyard of the house I was staying at, and thought long and deep about what I gained from twin oaks. I think I truly did gain a different and wonderful perspective, an appreciation of the rural life, of knowing where my food comes from, of harvesting my own vegetables, for sharing things and emotions and love and drama, a desire for equality, appreciation for people that may think or act differently than me, and a deep mutually respectful bond with the earth and its land that sustains us all. But most importantly, I gained memories and people that I will never forget. People with stories that are funny and amazing and horrific and fascinating. The best (and arguably the worst) part of twin oaks are its people, the pillars that hold this place together with blood and sweat and tears and joy and love and pain. It’s hard to articulate all the things I have felt and experienced here. But like any other model, twin oaks isn’t perfect. As in any social environment, there exist complicated webs of inter-personal relationships, politics, and for lack of a better world, drama. However, it isn’t meant to be perfect, it’s merely a better alternative to the mainstream society that so many people feel alienated from. Utopia? Not quite yet I think. However a willingness to concede all hierarchy and power, and function solely from the perspective of global well-being is more than I can say for capitalistic society. And until we have utopia, almost utopia is our best bet.
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Sanjukta Krishnagopal
This is where I put random musings created on cold rainy nights whilst typing away furiously on my laptop. I have been published in the 'creative writing' category' at the Unknown Pen, Youth Ki Awaaz, Terribly Tiny Tales, and Berlin Unspoken. I was also Chief Writer of the Department of Journalism and Media at BITS Goa. I also treat this space as a personal travel blog with practical information. If you are interested in talking about writing, I'd love to hear from you! Archives
September 2022
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