Governments which use force are based upon bad principles of human engineering.

vår enkle betasuppe av goodreads-omtaler av det flådde objekt:

"a decent read unless you want plot or character development.
Walden Two is an intellectual treatise disguised as a novel.
Once you know that, feel free to take it or leave it. (..)

Walden Two contains no plot, clumsy writing, and characters
that serve as nothing more than mouthpieces for B.F. Skinner,
our author.
That being said, if you want an intellectual exploration of a
Utopian world ruled by behaviorism, this book may be for you.
Skinner proposes many thought-provoking questions:
what if we strove to eliminate class differences so that
everyone could work in equal measure? What if we used
positive reinforcement to reward people for their good
behaviors instead of punishing them for their bad ones?
What if we trained everyone in our society to let scientific
principles guide their actions? I think about these questions
and the shortcomings of arguments about "free will" all the time..
(Thomas)

" you know, if you were bored reading it, it's too bad you
don't live in Walden Two, where you could just say,
"This is boring to me," and everyone would be totally cool
with that."
(Melissa)

"Characters are merely loudspeakers for the author, going so
far as to be named after him. Most characters, while having
distinct viewpoints and personalities, are one-dimensional.
There is no discernible plot whatsoever. And I mean none.

As this is a novel of a utopia, the flavor is bland.
Everything is perfect for the residents of Walden Two.
You almost resent them. I was bored, despite the brisk pace.

As a behavior analyst, this novel is almost pornographic..
This is Skinner's dreamworld, a perfect application of successful
behavior analysis to a voluntary community
of a variety of educated persons. Its moving. Its beautiful.
It is almost overwhelmingly optimistic and positive.
It even supplies research ideas.
(Kaitlyn)

"Two cheers for Skinner for being able to imagine a community where
no child goes unloved or hungry,
where people are more than commodities or workers.
I want a world like that too.
But Walden Two is just flimsy, and yeah, I value democracy
and individualism and have not been convinced that those values
are the root of catastrophic failure in our society."
(Megan)

"horrible experience. I started out wondering why the professor ..
was so hostile and testy towards Frazier, the architect behind
the meant-to-be utopia, Walden Two.
Some pages later, I wanted to punch him in the face myself.
You realise pretty early on that this is not a novel at all,
but merely a framework for an odd philosophy, delivered as
dialogue, and in the most patronising and self-righteous way.
When I started having more than one objection, reservation or
question per sentence, I knew this work and I had to go
separate ways." (Thomas St)

""We are only just beginning to understand the power of love
because we are just beginning to understand the weakness of
force and aggression."

B.F. Skinner asks, if you knew how to manipulate people into
living in an ideal society, wouldn't you do it?
We are all products of our experiences and responses to
societal conditioning. Wouldn't it be best if we deliberately
created a society that conditioned us to live harmoniously
and happily?

If readers are looking for a conventional novel, there is a
plot here, a beginning and middle and end.
But that story is mostly beside the point." (Jan P)

"In 1970, my first term at the University of Washington, I
took a psychology class taught by a recent retiree from the
US Navy. The man was a behaviorist, of course, and had spent
20 years training porpoise to commit acts of war.

I worked hard in that class, harder than was typical for an
intro class. I read and wrote a paper about Walden Two.
Mostly what I remembered was the clever way work was set up
in this imagined utopia." (Jan P)

"Anyway, Castle represents more conventional philosophical
thought and he's constantly searching for holes in the Walden
Two model; ethical issues, potential future problems and whatnot.

He says things like “Don't you run into problems with human
ambition? Isn't it unethical to condition children from such
an early age? Does such extreme egalitarianism stifle genius?”
That sort of thing.' . . .

'And these are worthwhile questions, but Skinner wins the argument
every time; he always holds the hammer.
Walden Two, in the book, works flawlessly; everyone is happy,
productive and creatively engaged.
You can't complain “but what about potential problems x, y and z”
when everything you witness runs so perfectly.
Castle's criticisms come of as petty and blind." (Joe)

"..important to remember, the book was first published in 1948.
So yes, much of it is dated. But its brash, atheistic, rational,
highly pragmatic, dialectical approach would be ahead of its time
if it were written in 2019.

Skinner is perhaps the most misunderstood and wrongly maligned
Psychologist ever. But in the age of internet based, algorithmic
behavioral tracking, behavioral forecasting and behavioral
modification, ignore Skinner at your own peril.

As our economy and culture at large become increasingly informational,
Skinner’s paradigm becomes.. more relevant.

And as AI and other forms of automation evolve, and continue to
make human labor less necessary, than we may find ourselves having
a second or third look at the types of policies and engineered
environments Skinner proposes in this book.
(Morgan B)