The design of B.F. Skinner's imaginary utopia, Walden Two, is based on the principles of behavioral engineering perceptible in 1945. Incorporating knowledge of natural human tendencies, these principles uphold the use of positive reinforcement, rules requir-ing all members of the community to work, and other Walden Two practices. By presenting guidelines for human management in the context of a functioning community, Skinner encourages readers
to contrast the Walden Two ideal of a workable community with the practices observed in contemporary society.
Many people live today in urban areas where they maintain few close ties to their neighbors and have to guard their personal property from others seeking to gain it through means ranging from
sales pitches to theft. Walden Two is portrayed as a small
community, whose members partake of both work and recreational activities together. When people outside the community join as new members, they become immediate participants in the communal life-style. They agree to work according to the commune's schedules and not to claim any share of the results of their labors. They can leave at any time, taking with them any belongings brought in when they joined, but they cannot take along anything produced at Walden Two. Those who stay are entitled to a share of all the products of the commune, even after they are no longer productive themselves. In contrast to existing societies where many elderly people are inadequately provided for, the inhabitants of Walden Two are assured of being decently provided for throughout their lives (Skinner 154-155).
The upbringing of native members of Walden Two is carefully controlled. Children are left neither in the care of mothers torn between the demands of a career and motherhood, nor in the hands of parents who may be ignorant of proper childcare methods or even abusive. Infants are brought together in one place and given scientifically sound car...