Consequences
Inspired by the Utopian ideas expressed in A Traveler from Altruria, in 1894 Unitarian minister Edward Biron Payne and thirty of his followers founded Altruria, a short-lived Utopian community in Sonoma County, California; short-lived presumably because altruism—defined as an unselfish concern for the welfare of others—does not lend itself well to compulsion or force, but springs from the hearts of each individual. Thomas Merton once stated that "he solution is love as the highest expression of man's spirituality and freedom" and that "ope of attaining true freedom by purely political means has become an insane delusion."
Howells would eventually create an Altrurian trilogy, following the first book with Letters of an Altrurian Traveller (1904) and Through the Eye of the Needle (1907).
Read more about this topic: A Traveler From Altruria
Famous quotes containing the word consequences:
“There is not much that even the most socially responsible scientists can do as individuals, or even as a group, about the social consequences of their activities.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)
“Every expansion of government in business means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors and wrongs is driven irresistibly without peace to greater and greater control of the nation’s press and platform. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“There are more consequences to a shipwreck than the underwriters notice.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)