Paul Goodman was `de rigueur" reading for the disenchanted and disaffected youth of the `60's, particularly his examination of the follies and shortcomings of our education system, in "Growing Up Absurd." In "Communitas" he teams up with his architect brother, Percival. This volume is not as well known, and preceded "Absurd" by a number of years, first written in 1947, and later revised and updated in 1960. The book is divided into two principal parts; the first concerns the planning of our urban space, the second concerns our economic arrangements and how we make our livelihood. It is replete with drawings; the majority depicting architectural arrangements.
The first half of the book, on our urban space is divided into three sections: one on the proposed "green belts" around cities, the second on designs for industrial space, and the third on integrated usage. If it sounds a bit "dry," and in parts it is, it is also leaven with the Goodmans' wit, and sometimes acerbic observations. This section of the book might not be fully engaging for those not in the fields of urban planning or architecture, but I firmly believe that for the "lay" person it is worth the effort. How many of us have observed that American cities, with their strip malls, and all, contain a fair amount that is just plain ugly? So it is beneficial and even enjoyable to consider the alternatives, and the ones offered are wide-ranging.
The second part of the book, entitled "Three Community Paradigms," should be engaging to all of us, perhaps more so now than at any time since the Great Depression, since we are clearly in at least a near-miss, labeled the Great Recession. How can so many people be searching for a "job," when for almost all of human history, real work was self-evident, and readily available? The first section deals with "planned luxury consumption," which might sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but it has largely come to pass, though hardly in the ways the Goodmans outlined, since around 80% of the American economy now depends on the consumer. Could the Goodmans have ever possibly imagined that China would be supplying all those goods? For me the most interesting chapter is 6, on the elimination of the differences between consumption and production. Yes, wildly utopian; some have tried the life experiment and failed, but a few are still "plugging away" at it, with success measured in terms of pleasure rather than dollars.
There is an appendix that is entitled a Master Plan for New York. It is good solid, urban-planning history, which tries to turn the island "outward," towards the water that surrounds it, rather than have Central Park be the focus. The only other current review of this book notes that even since 9-11, virtually none of the issues in the book have been addressed in a satisfactory way. Speaking of reviews, the best current one of "Growing Up Absurd" is entitled: "This ain't dated. And that's tragic." And I strongly feel that is true of both books.
Hopefully this book will inspire others to look at our existing societal and economic arrangements, particularly the paramount one: America's utter dependence on China, and to a lesser degree, other countries for manufactured goods. Dubbed as "free trade," it is obviously unsustainable with the only thing America has to trade back are IOU's. Figuring out a solution to this conundrum is a very real "job," self-evident work of the most valuable kind. A wonderful 5-star read, again.
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