Great successes and catastrophes all begin the same way:
with a big idea.
The Great State of Louisiana, my adopted home, has a rich history of attempting a practice of utopian socialism early in the last century. One of the most notable was in 1917, when two hundred settlers from a failed "warmth of collectivism" utopian socialist community in California chartered a train to the abandoned mill town of Stables, Louisiana. They were referred to, somewhat derisively, by more strident socialists of the time as “utopian socialists” for their idealistic approach. Around this same time, model socialist communities were being established in states across the country, but most were short-lived.
The group’s founder, Job Harriman, was a prominent lawyer who had served as Eugene Debs’s running mate on the Socialist Party ticket in the presidential election of 1900. The early years in the colony, named New Llano were tough, with no plumbing, little food, and almost no money. Kinda like living in a NYC apartment building these days.
Many colonists said oh hell no, gave up and returned to California.
At its height, the New Llano colony is estimated to have contained between eight hundred and a thousand members. Some "scholars" who regularly make bank pulling numbers out of the asses for the purpose of new books, believe as many as 10,000 people.
As long as they bought shares and were willing to work, colonists were provided with a home, three square meals a day (or the ingredients to prepare them), free healthcare, and free education.
Despite the community’s many progressive ideals, the population never did welcome black or Asian colonists. Nope! Nope! No coloreds round here.
But when the Great Depression hit, founder Job Harriman skipped out for the comfort of California and the colony struggled to accommodate the influx of poor and destitute people who arrived looking for help. Dissension grew as long-time idealistic colonists resented as the new leaders generosity with these new arrivals to their workers paradise, many of whom could not pay for membership.
At the height of the colony’s financial difficulties, many members staged a coup and overthrew the ones in power and took over. The unicorns escaped and the colony collapsed from debt and internal conflict. Some were more equal than others.
Many other colonies popped up. All failed to birth a unicorn.
