What I found surprising about this reading was the discussion on what makes a community successful. While there are those that think the sheer length of time that the group has been established equates to their level of success, there are others that think it focuses more on the emotions of the people. Although, yes it is important to remain a community in order to grow and organize, the mindsets of the people are also a major determining factor. The discussion that “personal satisfaction and social congruence or original ideals and existence” (128) are good ways to note the success of a community.
Going off of this, the longevity of a commune was said to go hand and hand with a “dedicated and obedient community”. I suppose I never really thought about it but the idea of strict commitment in these communities was never really something I considered, more just that these people all came together with a shared goal. The author states, ” for example, as certain contemporary communes emerge as a group, though they would resist the implication that they are “building commitment,” they nevertheless begin informally to develop ways of binding a person to the group and cutting him off from his past or from life outside the commune” (134). What I find surprising are the examples that the author gives, of ways in which people show their commitment, and how so many communes view this as necessary.