All Possible Worlds: Utopian Experiments in British Columbia

Alice Kidd is an editor with The New Catalyst editorial collective in
Lillooet, B.C.

Justine Brown explores utopian experiments in B.C., from Metlakatla in
the 1870s to the present day. As a child she spent some time in a
1960s-style community on a small Gulf Island; as an adult she has
clearly studied the literature of utopian dreaming as well as talked
with people who have experienced “living in community” now or in the
past.

The book begins with a brief discussion of the etymological origins and
present connotations of the word “utopia,” which places the topic in
historical context and provides a useful framework for the histories
that follow. Utopia can mean variously “good place,” “nowhere,”
or in modern understanding “the ultimate in futility.” She measures
each experiment against these definitions. The communities chosen for
description vary from the religious or spiritual to the secular and
political, from those formed around a charismatic leader to those with a
more co-operative organization, and from isolated rural settlements to
urban communities. She relates the stories of their origins, what they
were like in their heyday, and what happened after that.

The text is dispassionate, respectful, and nonjudgmental—a healthy
change from many other books on this theme. Perhaps it is that Brown is
not concerned with the moral value of these experiments. Some of the
places she describes tried for “goodness,” some failed miserably,
some celebrated or exemplified “nowhereness,” and some appear to
have been futile in effect. Brown’s thesis is that this modern
perception misses the point. Far from futile, utopian experiments remind
us that the “way things are” is not the only way, that human history
and society are not homogeneous. Utopian experiments, even if
short-lived, provide living examples of possible futures and
encouragement for those of us who wish for change in our daily life.