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**George Ripley** (October 3rd, 1802-July 4th, 1880) Transcendentalist and Advocate for Commune Living

George Ripley, a Harvard-educated minister, was one of the most highly regarded societal critics of his time. Using the sermon as the method of spreading his beliefs, he associated himself with the other Transcendentalists by disparaging the popular Unitarian church’s idea of miracles. In his later writings, he criticized society’s emphasis on the pursuit of wealth and cited poverty and gaps between social classes as main causes for social conflict. He strongly believed that if a group of individuals were to pool their resources, poverty would be eliminated and the community’s quality of life would rise.

In earlier times, Ripley spread his ideas through sermons at Boston’s Purchase Street Church. In response to the panic of 1837, he and Nathaniel Hawthorne formed a joint-stock company to build a commune in rural Massachusetts called Brook Farm. Based on Charles Fourier’s early-socialist ideas, this small community revolved around collective labor and wealth. In this little experiment, Ripley hoped to eliminate social disparities and their negative effects like greed, violence, poverty, and crime. He asserted that in such a communal society, less time would be spent laboring away for personal gain, leaving more time for enjoyment and higher philosophical and scientific thought, leading to more rapid technological advances. Although Brook Farm had gathered a large number of supporters, the land was sold within a few years due to financial hardship.

Although Ripley’s utopian ideas and goals were well intentioned and seemed feasible in a hypothetical sense, pure communism was not suitable for America’s booming economy that relied on competition and free trade. In the early 1800’s, America was just beginning to experience the Industrial Revolution started a few decades earlier across the Atlantic. Without capitalism’s stress on innovation and the pursuit of wealth, the United States would not have become a significant economic power in the region.

If Ripley’s social experiments were to have gained widespread support from around the nation, it would have been possible for the government to subsidize such communities by removing property taxes, allowing them to grow larger and eventually more self sufficient. Hypothetically, the president could have pressured the legislature to enact laws that protected the communes from financial obligations.

References:

Charles Fourier Ripley was strongly influenced by Charles Fourier's socialist ideas and theories. Fourier's ideas of communal labor and elimination of personal wealth prompted Ripley to create Brook Farm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Emerson was one of the founding members of Harvard's Transcendental club, along with Ripley. Together, they discussed religion, politics, and sociology. Emerson's ideas, along with those of other members of the group, greatly influenced Ripley's writings, sermons, and eventually Brook Farm.

Works Cited:

Cooke, George Willis. "George Ripley | Heralds of a Liberal Faith." //Harvard Square Library | Unitarian Biographies | Cambridge | History | Philosophy//. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. 

"George Ripley." //NNDB: Tracking the entire world//. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. .