The Best Failed Utopias

The utopias listed include Brook Farm, the Garden of Eden and Jonestown.

"The scary thing about Jonestown is how noble its intentions were from the quick; its inhabitants, at the beginning, saw themselves building a community free of racism, buoyed by faith. If you look at archival footage of the construction of Jonestown, it's men and women of all ages and races, working together, singing in the sun. The whole sordid thing happened-and fell apart-because it was founded on earnest hope, and nobody wanted to let go of that. Easier just to lie down on the jungle floor and pretend like that was the plan to begin with. When it comes down to it, a lot more of us would drink the Kool-Aid than we're comfortable admitting."